Fish Composition and Fisheries at Downstream and Upstream of Baram River, Sarawak

The study on diversity and distribution of freshwater fishes at downstream and upstream of Baram River was carried out on 1st - 5th July 2014 and 19th - 23rd January 2015. The fishes were caught using cast net and gill net of various mesh sizes. In Baram River, fishes from the family Cyprinidae were dominant with 64.53% of the total number of individuals caught. Diversity and distribution of species was analyzed using diversity index which are Shannon-Weiner, Margalef’s Index and Pielou’s Index. Based on the results obtained, the downstream of Baram River recorded a diversity index of 2.88, Pielou’s Evenness Index of 0.46 and species richness of 6.84. In the upstream area, diversity index was 2.75, evenness index was 0.46 and species richness was 5.39. The most abundant species at the downstream area was Heleostoma temminckii with 87 individuals, while at upstream area was Rasbora lateristriata with 68 individuals. For water quality observation, temperature ranged from 24.10- 35.93 °C, dissolved oxygen concentration has a mean of 6.12 mg/I and pH ranged from 6.30 to 7.01