Malays. Appl. Biol. (2018) 47(3): 49–58
ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL LANDING DATA TO UNDERSTAND
THE STATUS OF GROUPER POPULATIONS IN MALAYSIA
MAT PIAH, R.*, ABDUL KADIR, N.H., KAMARUDDIN, S.A., AZAMAN, M.N.
and AMBAK, M.A.
School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu,
21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia
*E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Accepted 4 May 2018, Published online 30 June 2018
ABSTRACT
Groupers (Serranidae) are one of the commercially important species in tropical waters but for most species, the fisheries, biological and ecological data are largely unknown. This study aims to describe their fisheries status in Malaysian waters by analysing the annual landing data provided by the Department of Fisheries, Malaysia supplemented by monthly sampling at the main fish landing ports. This study found that the landings are constantly fluctuating, influenced by the northeast monsoon and affected by four fishing gears catch performance. The fishing region with greatest area of marine parks recorded higher catches of groupers. The number of grouper species caught in Terengganu is low (seven) compared to the diversity of the species in the area and 96% of the grouper landings were of two species. Of the seven species, two are listed as ‘Data Deficient’ in the IUCN red list, one species as ‘Least Concern’, two species are listed as ‘Near Threatened’ species and two species has not been assessed. The findings of this study highlights the needs for more scientific research to be conducted and better management measures should be formulated such as closed seasons and catch quota to effectively protect the grouper population.
Key words: Grouper, fisheries status, fisheries management, South China Sea
