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Hybrid seine for full fish community collections

James E. McKenna·Emily M. Waldt·Ross Abbett·Anthony David·James Snyder
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Abstract

Seines are simple and effective fish collection gears, but the net mesh size influences how well the catch represents the fish communities. We designed and tested a hybrid seine with a dual-mesh bag (1/4″ and 1/8″) and compared the fish assemblage collected by each mesh. The fine-mesh net retained three times as many fish and collected more species (as many as eight), including representatives of several rare species, than did the coarser mesh. The dual-mesh bag permitted us to compare both sizes and species retained by each layer and to develop species-specific abundance correction factors, which allowed comparison of catches with the coarse-mesh seine used for earlier collections. The results indicate that a hybrid seine with coarse-mesh wings and a fine-mesh bag would enhance future studies of fish communities, especially when small-bodied fishes or early life stages are the research focus.

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BibTeXRIS

James E. McKenna, Emily M. Waldt, Ross Abbett, Anthony David, James Snyder. 2013. Hybrid seine for full fish community collections. https://doi.org/10.1080/02705060.2012.695752

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