image border bottom

Title & Author

Page Full Text

Catch and Catch per unit efforts of Acipenser persicus (Borodin, 1897) in southern of the Caspian Sea (Mazandaran waters)

1-8Full Text

Mohammad Ali Afraei Bandpei* and Reza Daryanabard

Abstract
This study has been conducted in the southern coast of Caspian Sea in Mazandaran waters from 2009 to 2012. The sampling was done monthly through two fishing methods; through landing and beach seine nets. After being caught, the samples were delivered to breeding and reproduction center in Sari in order to be artificially propagations for the purpose of protection and restocks. The purpose of this study is to investigate the distribution, abundance, age, fork length, and body, meat and caviar weight, catch condition, catch per unit effort in the beach seine and landing. The results shown that 1283 caught A. persicus, 732 had caviars. Totally, the average fork length, body weight, meat and caviar weight were 150.5±17.6 cm, 24.4±9 kg, 18.6±6.4 kg and 4.8±1.7 kg, respectively. The contribution of landing in caviar production was 73.1%. There was a significant difference in the amounts of caviar and meat and the body weight between landing and beach seine nets (P>0.05). The ages of the sturgeons caught in the domain were from 11 to 23 years old. The most frequent age group was 14-15 years which had a frequency of about 44%. The catch per unit effort had decreasing trend from 2009 to 2012 with 0.289 and 0.124 kg/boat per day, respectively. The Persian sturgeon constituted 69% of the whole caviars caught during 20092012. The reason was the increase of the release of the juvenile of A. persicus in comparison with the other species of sturgeon. As this species is critically endangered, for the purpose of protecting and reviving it in the Caspian Sea, its commercial trade catch projects must be banned and its generators catch projects must be implemented for artificial propagations purposes. Furthermore, because this species is anadrumous, the preservation and revival of the rivers must be noticed by the authorities.