Preliminary Experiment on Beam Trawl Fishing Operation

Abstract

Experiment on Beam trawl fishing operation has been carried out by MV Plalung 1 during 18 to 19 March 2003. Fishing ground was nearby the entrance buoy of Chao-praya River, Inner zone of Gulf of Thailand. The experiment was aimed to investigate fishing efficiency of commercial scale beam trawl.3 fishing operations had been conducted by 3 different towing speeds, i.e. 2, 3 and 4 knots. Catch composition has shown, Group of other species are dominant catch, followed by group of demersal species, crab, Shrimp and Cephalopod with 13.98 kg, 5.66 kg, 4.45 kg, 3.3 kg and 2.5 kg respectively. The result has shown that the most appropriate towing speed of beam trawl is 4 knot with the maximum CPUE and minimum bottom sediment and garbage in the cod-end part. However, the catching selectivity and the effects to sea bottom and benthic habitat by dragging characteristic of beam trawl must be further investigated.