Coral Reef Fisheries at Cape Bolinao, Philippines: Species Composition, Abundance and Diversity

Abstract

The abundance, diversity and species composition of a multispecies reef fishery of Cape Bolinao, Philippines were studied using catches by trap, sector and hook-and-line fishers from June to December 1986. A total of 144 species were caught by these gears during the study. Of these species, 127 were caught by trap, 40 by spear and 15 by hook-and-line fishers. Traps fished 101 species, dominated by siganids (42%) from the backreef area and 90 species, dominated by labrids (26%) from the reef flat. Spear fishers collected many Siganus fuscescens contributing 84% of the total catch of the fishery. The family Lethrinidae dominated the catch (70%) of hook-and-line fishers. The Shannon-Weaver diversity index (H’) and species evenness (J) were calculated for the trap fishery. Mean diversity index was higher in the reef flat (2.60) than in the backreef (2.04). This was mainly due to the differences between these two sites in terms of intraspecific distribution as exemplified by the higher J or 0.78 in the reef flat than in the backreef (J=0.62).