A Review on the Status of Small Pelagic Fish Resources in the Lingayen Gulf for the Year 2009-2013

This study was carried out to increase information on the status of small pelagic fish species status in Lingayen Gulf. The information includes the catch per unit of effort of fishing gears catching small pelagic and the current status of the dominant small pelagic fish species using the National Stock Assessment Program (NSAP) standard data gathering of fisheries catch and effort. The results showed that almost 50% of the total fish harvest in Lingayen Gulf are small pelagics and the commercial fisheries sector contributed the largest catch. The commercial fishing gears that mostly catch small pelagics are the Danish seine and Trawl with an annual catch per unit of effort ranging from 899 to 1,186 kg/day and 65.98 to 119.77 kg/day, respectively. The municipal fishing gears, bottom set gillnet and bottom set longline had an annual catch per unit of effort ranging from 7.04-42.95 and 7.19-13.30 kg/day, respectively. The dominant small pelagic species are Decapterus maruadsi, Decapterus macrosoma, Selar crumenophthalmus, Rastrelliger brachysoma, and Rastrelliger kanagurta. The dominant species caught by commercial fishing gears are mostly juveniles while the dominant species caught by municipal fishing gears attained maturity before they are caught. Exploitation ratio (E-values) of the dominant small pelagic species in this study exceed the optimum level of 0.5, an indication of overexploitation due to high fishing pressure