Abstract

This study was performed to identify the catch composition of Düzce coast (southwestern Black Sea) at depths of 30-110 meters by bottom trawl between September 2014 and August 2015. In the catch compositions of the Düzce coast, the abundance of the first, second and third species were Merlangius merlangus with 73.12% (1290.29 kg / km2), Gobius spp. with 9.30% (164.04 kg/km2) and Mullus barbatus with 9.05% (159.61 kg / km2), respectively. The other 33 species make up 8.53% of total fish biomass. When seasonal distribution was examined, the total catch of fish were 1038.54, 2552.37, 1068.72, 5132.96 kg/km2, of which economic (target) fish species (Merlangius merlangus) constitute 745.72, 1726.14, 724.58, 4910.15 kg/km2 in autumn, winter, spring and summer respectively. In this study, fishing a very high rate of discard whiting in little sizes draws the attention. Whiting constitutes 56% of discard. Single or sporadic captures were also recorded for Acipenser stellatus, Trachurus trachurus, Spicara smaris, Lophius piscatorius, Serranus hepatus and Hippocampus hippocampus. Moreover, in this study, red list status for 36 fish species belonging to 27 family in Düzce coasts were considered with the Red List published by the International Union for conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). As a result of this comparison, it was determined that 2 species Critically Endangered (CR), 5 species Vulnerable (VU), 22 species Least Concern (LC), 4 species Not Evaluated (NE), 2 species Data Deficient (DD).