Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Finfish Bycatch in the U.S. Atlantic Bottom Longline Shark Fishery

Bycatch in U.S. fisheries has become an increasingly important issue to both fisheries managers and the public, owing to the wide range of marine resources that can be involved. From 2002 to 2006, the Commercial Shark Fishery Observer Program (CSFOP) and the Shark Bottom Longline Observer Program (SBLOP) collected data on catch and bycatch caught on randomly selected vessels of the U.S. Atlantic shark bottom longline fishery. Three subregions (eastern Gulf of Mexico, South Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic Bight), five years (2002–06), four hook types (small, medium, large, and other), seven depth ranges (<50 m to >300 m), and eight broad taxonomic categories (e.g. Selachimorpha, Batoidea, Serranidae, etc.) were used in the analyses. Results indicated that the majority of bycatch (number) was caught in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and that the Selachimorpha taxon category made up over 90% of the total bycatch. The factors year followed by depth were the most common significant factors affecting bycatch.

Socio-economic conditions of the pond owners of Demra, Dhaka

On the basis of fish culture status 96 ponds of the study area were classified into 4 categories like wild stock (27%), extensive culture (24%), improved extensive culture (33%) and semi-intensive culture (16%). Percentage of small, medium and large ponds were 38, 44, and 18 respectively whereas education levels below SSC, below Bachelor and above were 43, 38 and 19 respectively and single owners belonged to 54% of the ponds. Per hectare yields of extensive, improved extensive and semi-intensive categories of culture were 1.3, 2.12 and 4.0 metric tons respectively and their net return were 46, 63 and 92 thousand taka respectively. Considering the problems of fish culture, multiple ownership was found to be the most important one.

Optimizing the benefits from Nigerian small and medium size reservoirs through cooperative management approach

The paper traces the different management practices adopted for Nigerian inland water bodies from the Colonial era to independence. It observes that the full potentials of these waters have never been realized over the years due to the absence of an effective management. The replacement of the traditional fisheries management by the centralized top-down approach by government after independence has not helped matters. Lately, the cooperative/community-based management approach has taken the centre stage worldwide. This has been identified to offer the most viable and equitable option towards the attainment of an optimum utilization of the fisheries resource. The entire community sensing security of tenure and enjoying some of the benefits from access control will actively take responsibility and enforcement. The paper drew experiences from some water bodies in Bangladesh, Philippines, Benin Republic and Malawi showing sound management strategy that, if adopted for our small and medium size reservoirs and other water bodies, would help optimize on an sustainable manner the benefits from those water bodies

A review of experimental trawling from small and medium sized mechanized vessels off Kanikada

The most suitable otter trawl for small boats was found to be a 10.9 to 15m 2-seam trawl with 100cm x 50cm x 35kg horizontally curved otter boards together with long single sweep line. For operation from medium sized trawls, 18.26m 2-seam 18.3m 4-seam and 29.26m long wing trawl were found suitable. An 18.3m 4-seam trawl was netting a considerable quantity of off-bottom fishes. Shrimps predominated in the catches of the 29.26m trawl. Productive grounds for Cynagris species, Psenus species and Decapterus species within 50 to 100m depth ranges off Kakinada were available for profitable exploitation.