Fish weight and species diversity of traditional and modified traps in selected fishing communities in lagos lagoon

Abstract

The efficiency of modified and traditional traps was investigated based on fish weight and species diversity as well as condition factors of the most abundant species across four locations in Lagos lagoon. Sixty fishing traps comprised of ten of each of the designs; modified plastic traps (three) and traditional fishing traps (three) was used for the fishing operation from 6 May 2014 to 11 April 2016. Modified plastic cylindrical trap caught significantly (F – test, < 0.05) more fish (47.77g) and recorded the highest (6.22) condition factor (K) than other modified and traditional traps across stations. Twenty-one fish species from fourteen families were recorded from Lagos lagoon. Most abundant species with their aggregate percentages of the total catch in Abule-Agege, Elegushi, Ibeshe and Langbasa was Bathygobious soporator (59.9%), Ethmalosa fimbriata (32.48%), Sarotherodon melanotheron (42.95%) and Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (29.42%) respectively. The use of modified traps could assist conservation and management of fisheries resources.