Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Gunawardena, Nuwan D.P.
• Jutagate, Tuanthong
• Amarasinghe, Upali S.

Titel

Patterns of species composition of beach seine fisheries off North-Western coast of Sri Lanka, fishers’ perceptions and implications for co-management

Ist Teil von

• Marine policy, 2016-10, Vol.72, p.131-138

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Access via ScienceDirect (Elsevier)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• As in many developing countries, small-scale fisheries including beach seining contribute significantly livelihoods and food security of coastal communities. Beach seining in Sri Lanka is seasonal mainly during calm season deprived of strong monsoonal winds, and essentially a multi-species fishery. Knowledge about the seasonal occurrence of pelagic species is important to be known for proper planning of the fishing activity, especially due to the reason that beach seine fishers in many parts of Sri Lanka make decisions to attach the cod-end of correct type depending on the target species. The possibility of identifying pattern of seasonal occurrence of target fish species in beach seine fishing sites off the southern region of north-western coast of Sri Lanka was therefore investigated using Self Organizing Maps (SOM). The analysis indicated that beach seine fishers’ local knowledge to predict the occurrence of certain species in the fishing sites to adjust their fishing strategies to target desirable species was consistent with the findings of SOM approach. Consequently, it was concluded that as beach seine fishers use indirect indicators such as colour of sea water and behaviour sea birds predict the species occurrence fairly accurately, their local knowledge can be incorporated in the management planning of beach seine fisheries in the North Western coastal area of Sri Lanka. •Temporal and spatial patterns of fish species of beach seine landings are evident.•Fishers predict the occurrence of fish species through their traditional knowledge.•Beach seine cod-end of appropriate size is used through fishers’ local knowledge.•Fishers’ local knowledge can therefore be incorporated to define co-management.