BY-CATCH COMPOSITION OF SMALL-SCALE SHRIMP TRAWLERS IN THE PERSIAN GULF (HORMUZGAN PROVINCE), IRAN

Fishing vessels equipped with bottom trawls cause high amount of by-catch and discards. We investigated the catch composition and by-catch percentage in October -November 2002 during shrimp fishing season in Hormuzgan Province waters. The studied area was located in Dar-Soorkh area, east of Hormuz Island and Toola area. Sampling was done using wooden fishing dhows. During shrimp season, 36 hauls with a total catch of 6050kg were treated. The catch composed of 88 species belonging to 50 families of which 67 species were bony fish from 38 families, 9 species were cartilaginous fish from 6 families, and 3 species were mollusks from three families and also 9 species of crustacean were found belonging to 3 families. The percentages of different groups of by-catch and target catch (shrimp) were 49.4% small discards, 18.7% large discards, 4.7% commercial species and 27.2% shrimp. The ratio of total by-catch to shrimp was estimated to be about 2.7 times that of the shrimp.