Abstract:
This study was carried out to determine the length at the first capture, Lc of
the dominant species in Kuala Terengganu waters. Lc is the length at 50% of
the fish entering the gear is retained. The codend of a trawl net has been
modified with the addition of a net with the mesh size of 25 mm to cover the
codend of 38 mm mesh size. Ten species of marine fish were collected
during the experiment with the total number of 1 736 in cover net and 1 128
in the codend. The species caught during the experiments are Secutor
hanedai, Equulites stercorarius, Pseudorhombus malayanus,
Pseudorhombus arsius, Saurida undosquamis, Trichiurus lepturus,
Nemipterus hexodon, Upeneus guttatus, Scolopsis taenioptera and
Selaroides leptolepis where the dominant species are Secutor hanedai and
Equulites stercorarius. The length frequency distribution for S. hanedai and
E. stercorarius are between 7.1 em to 10.7 em and 7.0cm to 10.6 em
respectively. This study found that the length at first capture, Lc S. hanedai
is 7.28 em and 6.13 em for E.stercorarius. The Lc for the both species is
lower than length at the first maturity, Lm from the previous study. This
study suggested that the use of 38mm mesh size of codend or larger should
be enforced to promote sustainability of our resources.
