Offshore fishes of the Arafura Sea

Bibliographic Data

ID19427500
AuthorsBarry C Russell (0000-0001-5654-7732, Department of Arts and Museums), Wayne Houston (0000-0003-2413-6677, Department of Arts and Museums)
Year1989
Volume6
Issue1
Pages69-84
Publication date1989-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Beagle Records of the Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0811-3653
PublisherSmithsonian Institution (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.5962/p.271273
OpenAlexW2235808606
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited1

The species composition, zoogeographic affinities and importance to fisheries of the offshore fish fauna of the Arafura Sea is examined.A total of 527 species from 141 families are recorded.Most of the fishes are shallow-water, benthic species belonging to widespread Indo-Pacific families.Remaining fishes are deeper water or epipelagic forms with Indo-Pacific or Cosmopolitan distributions.The 10 most speciose families (Carangidae, Lutjanidae, Carcharhinidae, Leiognathidae, Nemipleridae, Platycephalidae, Serranidae, Scorpaenidae, Mullidae, Bothidae) contain about 34% of the total number of species.Greatest faunal affinity is seen with the fish fauna of the North-west Shelf of Western Australia.Fishing methods in the Arafura Sea include bottom trawl, gillnet, longline, and handline.Of the total species recorded, 491 (93.2%) were taken by bottom trawl; 108 species (20.5%) are retained as catch; and 163 by-catch species (30.9%), presently discarded, are potentially useful for food, bait, or processing as fish meal and petfood.Some 23 species (4.4%) are dominant in bottom trawls and comprise about 70% of the total catch biomass

Biology · Carangidae · Discards · Fauna · Fish · Fishery · Fishing · Geography · Lutjanidae · Overfishing · Pelagic zone · Perciformes · Scorpaenidae · Fish Biology and Ecology Studies · Ichthyology and Marine Biology · Marine and fisheries research · Ecology

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