Ichthyological composition of fishing gear types from marine artisanal fishery of grand-lahou (Ivory Coast)

Abstract

In Côte d'Ivoire, fishing in Grand-Lahou locality provides 20% of national artisanal catches. From August 2016 to February 2017, fishing units and the ichthyological composition of their fishing gears were characterised on Lahou-Kpanda site. One unit using the beach seine, eleven the purse seines and seven the gillnets were involved. Twenty-two fish species have been identified. Twenty-one of them were caught by purse seines, eleven by the beach seine and six by gillnets. Purse seines and the beach seine preferentially catch Clupeidae, 80.95% and 88.12% respectively. According to species, Sardinella maderensis (55.76%) and Ethmalosa fimbriata (13.73%) dominate purse seines catches and Sardinella maderensis (37.68%), Ethmalosa fimbriata (28.16%) and Sardinella aurita (20.12%) those of the beach seine. The gillnets catch more Sciaenidae (59.10%), Sphyraenidae (16.20%) and Cynoglossidae (15.39%) with Pseudotolithus typus (30.14%) as well as Pseudotolithus elongatus, Sphyraena afra and Cynoglossus canariensis as dominant species.