Species Composition and Diversity of Fishes in the South China Sea, Area I: Gulf of Thailand and East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

The collaborative research on species composition and diversity of fishes in the Gulf of Thailand and eastern Malay Peninsula was carried out by R. V. Pramong 4 in Thai waters and K.K. Manchong, K.K. Mersuji in Malaysian waters, through otter-board trawling surveys. Taxonomic surveys also done for commercial fishes in the markets of some localities. Totally 300 species from 18 orders and 89 families were obtained. Their diversity are drastically declined, compare to the previous survey from 380 species trawled. The station point of off Ko Chang, eastern Gulf of Thailand and off Pahang River shown significantly high diversity of fishes57 and 73 species found. Demersal species form the main composition of the catchs. The lizardfish Saurida undosquamis, S. miropectoralis, the bigeye Priacanthus tayenus and P. macracanthus, the rabbitfish Siganus canaliculatus and hairtail Trichiurus lepturus were the most abundant economic species found in mast of the sampling stations. Fishing efforts were 34 hours and 49 hours for the cruises I and II, with average catch per hour of 12.04 and 34.79 kg. respectively. The maximum catch per hour was 175.3 kg in Malaysian waters, the minimum was 4.33 kg in Thai waters. The average percentage of economic fishes is higher than that of trash fishes in Malaysian waters, it ranged from 55.45 to 81.92 %.