Seasonal variations in catches and effortsof a small-scale swimming crab trap fishery in the Eastern Gulf of Thailand

Abstract

Variations in catch per unit effort (CPUE), distributions of size-structure, sex ratio, and spawning female conditionsfrom a fishery were examined to better understand the impact of fishing activities. We collected data from crab fishery,which is a small-scale fishery in Chonburi, an eastern province of Thailand, during October 2006 - September 2007. Both CPUE and size-structure of the swimming crab varied seasonally. Sex ratio from the catch was not 1:1 and the distributions of both male and female varied by season. Even though it is premature to conclude that the stock is overfished, more management measures are recommended to prevent overfishing due to the concern of high proportion of females and the presence of numbers of spawning females in the catches.

Keywords

• CPUE
• size-structure
• sex ratio
• swimming crab
• small-scale fisheries.