Study on the potancially economical important species trawled from Karataş (Adana) coasts

STUDY ON THE POTANCIALLY ECONOMICAL IMPORTANT SPECIESTRAWLED FROM KARATAŞ (ADANA) COASTSAbstract: This study was carried out during 2002-2003 fishing season off theKaratas located along the Northeastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. The deeptrawl net was operated by monthly sampling interval with one-hour haul duration in0-20m, 20-50m and 50-100m depth ranges. During the study period, on the basis ofspecies; a total of 90 fishes, five cephalopods, and 15 crustaceans were caught. Totalweight of marine organisms obtained from 24 deep trawl operations were631403.89g and its mean CPUE value was calculated as 26308.5±18954.2g hour-1.Minimum and maximum CPUE values for 50-100m and 20-50m depth ranges weredetermined 13544.80g hour-1 and 33319.80g hour-1 respectively. During the studyperiod the maximum CPUE value was obtained in September (66756.30g hour-1)and this value decreased continuously to 12478.50g hour-1 in March. Fishesrepresented the major proportion with respect to the total catch (79.10%), followedby crustaceans (13.73%) and cephalopods (7.17%). In addition, on average 37.9% ofthe total catch was discarded. Number of lessepsian fish species consisted of %18.9of total fish species, and lessepsian proportion of total fish biomass were estimatedas 26.66%. In the main catch, Mullus barbatus was the most abundant species withthe proportion of %19.48 and followed by Charybdis longicollis (%15.98) andSaurida undosquamis (%15.56). Selectivity parameters for some fish speciesindicated that fish populations inhabiting in the study area have been under fishingpressure. In addition, some analysis were conducted by using Mullus barbatus andUpeneus pori, and found that, if the fishing season opens in November, it would bebeneficial for both regional fish populations and fisheries.Key Words: Northeastern Mediterranean, Trawl Fishery, Lessepsian, Discard