A comparison of the relative efficiency of ring, fyke, fence nets and beam trawling for estimating key estuarine fishery populations

We compared the relative capture efficiency of four commonly-used gear types; ring, fence, fyke nets and beam trawls, for estimating the abundance of sand whiting, Sillago ciliata, and dusky flathead, Platycephalus fuscus, in a southeast Queensland estuary. Our overall estimates of relative efficiency were based on an intensive time-replicated Latin-square experiment with all four gear types, combined with sampling at three sites, using different paired gear combinations, between January 1996 and December 1998. We found that ring and fyke nets were most effective (95%) in capturing a representative size-range of S. ciliata and P. fuscus, compared to fence nets (80 and 60%, respectively) and beam trawls (35 and 6%, respectively). However, to obtain an overall estimate of population abundances of either species, all four gear types were necessary to sample the range of habitat types found in the estuary.