Relative abundance of flying fish gillnet fisheries in Maitum, Sarangani province

Abstract

Flying fish (family Exocoetidae, or locally called as “bangsi”) are the most dominant catches of gillnets in the predominantly small-scale fisheries of the municipality of Maitum, Sarangani, Philippines. In this study, an assessment of flying fish was conducted from January 2013 to December 2015 based on fish catch surveys in the fish landing sites. On average, flying fish contributed about 84% of the annual catch production but showed a declining trend over the three year period. The estimated total flying fish production was 655.27 MT in 2013 but declined to 349.56 MT in 2014 and 300.04 MT in 2015. Surface gillnet was the gear used exclusively in catching flying fish. Genera of the flying fish were identified, namely, Cheilopogon (63.2%), Cypselurus (7.6%), Hirundichthys (6.5%), Parexocoetus (3.8%) and Exocoetus (1.5%). About 1.2% of the flying fish caught were unidentifiable to the genus level. Flying fishes were caught throughout the year, with monthly variations but the seasonality was not clearly observed during the three-year study period.