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Catch per Unit Effort and yields as indicators of exploited fish communities: application to two West A frican reservoirs
Author(s) -
Kantoussan Justin,
Ecoutin Jean M.,
Fontenelle Guy,
Morais Luis Tito,
Laë Raymond
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
lakes and reservoirs: research and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.296
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1440-1770
pISSN - 1320-5331
DOI - 10.1111/lre.12061
Subject(s) - catch per unit effort , fishing , fishery , environmental science , fish <actinopterygii> , yield (engineering) , unit (ring theory) , geography , mathematics , biology , materials science , mathematics education , metallurgy
Two indicators of fish exploitation, catch per unit effort ( CPUE ) and yield per unit area, were used with surveys of small‐scale fishery landings to compare two African reservoirs that differ in their level of fish exploitation, being high for S elingue R eservoir and low for M anantali R eservoir, both located in W est A frica. The heavy exploitation in Selingue Reservoir induced a decline in catches per fishing trip (9.5 kg trip −1 ), whereas the catch remained high at M anantali R eservoir (17.0 kg trip −1 ). Moreover, the annual fish yield per unit area was lower for M anantali R eservoir (19 kg ha −1 ) than for S elingue R eservoir (79 kg ha −1 ). There was no relationship between the M orphoedaphic Index and catches for the two reservoirs. Rather, only the fishing effort and annual water‐level variations defined the reservoir fish yields. Based on the results of the present study, it appears that CPUE and fish yield per unit area represent simple and robust indicators for describing the impacts of fishing intensity in aquatic ecosystems.