Influence of environmental factors on catch rates of flotsam associated Indian Scad (Decapterus Russelli) in the Indian Ocean

Abstract

The Indian Scad is an important Carangidae fish species caught in ring net, gillnet, and longline fishery. The fishes of the family Carangidae are one of the important fishery resources in Sri Lankan waters as they constitute nearly 34% of the annual marine fish landings of 32956 metric tons pelagic fish landing during 2019. The present study was undertaken to study the relative influence of oceanographic environment factors on their Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) in the Indian Ocean. The relationships were examined for the oceanographic environment factors namely, Sea Surface Chlorophyll (SSC), Mixed Layer Depth, Sea Surface Height (SSH), Salinity, Sea Surface Temperature (SST). In addition, two variables indicating the geographical location (Latitude (Lat), Longitude (Lon)) were used as explanatory variables.