Chronicle of marine fisheries in the Gulf of Thailand: variations, trends and patterns

Abstract

1302-1309A comprehensive picture of marine fisheries in the Gulf of Thailand (GoT), within Thailand’s boundary, has been described by using fish landing data for 26 years, between 1984 and 2009. Thirty-five (35) species/groups of fish landings were used in analysis. Rastrelliger brachysoma showed the lowest long-term variation (CV) in fish landings at 15.53% and the highest CV was observed in Lates calcarifer at 146.16%. The relationship between CV and fish landings showed a negative trend with a high correlation (r = 0.62) and was associated with species life-history strategies. For short-term variations, the means of the relative variation (28%) were higher than the absolute variation (25%), indicating a higher uncertainty when catches are low. Three trends in fish landings were analyzed by Spearman’s rank correlation. Seven (7) and 3 species/groups trended to decrease and increase, respectively, over the studied period. Meanwhile, 15 species/groups showed a trend of inversion, i.e. increased then decreased. The self-organizing map was used to cluster patterns of fish landings, which indicated temporal trends of chronological order, i.e. 1985-1990, 1992-1998, 1999-2007 and 2008-2009