Bycatch and discards of the Kuwait shrimp fishery

Abstract The landings and survey data for the Kuwait shrimp fishery were analyzed. The estimated bycatch-to-shrimp ratios exhibited a seasonal pattern, with summer having the highest ratio. There was a significant difference in bycatch-to-shrimp ratio between Kuwait Bay and the rest of the Kuwaiti waters. The temporal and spatial patterns of the ratio strongly support the seasonal and area closures implemented for the shrimp fishery in terms of bycatch reduction. The bycatch-to-shrimp ratio of the shrimp fishery was 15.32, 6.78 and 13.68 in 1987/1988, 1988/1989 and 1989/1990, respectively. Total bycatch in the shrimp trawling ranged from 34 740 to 55 500 tonnes (t) during the study period, and more than 98% of the bycatch was discarded at sea. The total discards from the shrimp fishery was 7.5-fold higher than the mean of annual finfish landings in Kuwait. The major part of the discarded was non-Ariid finfish, accounting to 53.61%.