Analysis of catch of shrimp net in the Brass River Estuary, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Shrimp net fishing has raised much controversy owing to landing of small sizes and immature commercially important fishes. The study was carried out to investigate the contribution of the shrimp net to juvenile fish landings at the Brass River Estuary, where the gear is commonly used. The landings from 68 shrimp nets were examined and overall weight of the catch recorded for shrimp and fish. Total lengths of the fishes were measured to the nearest centimeter (cm) and weights taken to the nearest gramme (g). The gonads of the fishes were examined to ascertain state of maturity. Of the total shrimp net landings of 596.9 kg, shrimps comprised 570 kg (95.5%) while fish made up 26.9 kg (4.5%). A total of 596 fishes of 19 different species belonging to 15 families were taken in the shrimp nets. The Sciaenidae dominated the fish landings, constituting 46.47% of which Pseudotolithus typus formed 41.44%. Immature and undersized fishes composed 96.14% of the fish landed. The implication of the continued use of the shrimp nets is removal of immature fishes of commercial importance, without reaching reproductive sizes and is signal to future collapse fisheries production.