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Fishery Bulletin 94(4), 1996 



ing A. arctidens was mostly tangled in the 2.5" mesh, 

 but most fish were gilled and wedged in the 3.5" and 

 4.5" mesh sizes. The pelagic Arripis trutta was mostly 

 gilled in the 2.5" nets, but the number offish gilled 

 and tangled was approximately equal in the 3.5" and 

 4.5" nets. 



Overall, the mean fork length of each species in- 

 creased with mesh size for gilled, wedged, and 

 tangled fish (Fig. 1). For example, the mean fork 

 length of gilled Arripis trutta was 240 mm in the 2.5" 

 mesh, 310 mm in the 3.5" mesh, and 505 mm in the 

 4.5" mesh. There was a similar pattern for this spe- 

 cies for tangled fish that averaged 460 mm, 560 mm, 

 and 580 mm for the three mesh sizes respectively. 

 There was considerable variation among species in 

 their size interaction among mesh sizes and form of 

 entanglement. However, for most species within each 

 mesh size, the general pattern was that tangled fish 

 had the largest mean fork length, gilled fish had an 

 intermediate mean fork length, and wedged fish had 

 the smallest mean fork length. 



There was a clear transition in the proportion of 

 Odax pullus captured by each mode as fork length 

 increased in both the 2.5" and 3.5" mesh sizes (Fig. 

 2). Too few O. pullus were caught in the 4.5" mesh 



for analysis. Gilled fish were significantly larger than 

 wedged fish (F x 104 =35.77, P<0.001) in both the 2.5" 

 and 3.5" nets. In the 2.5" mesh, tangled fish were 

 significantly larger than gilled fish (F 2453 =78.41, 

 P<0.001). Overall, the 3.5" mesh caught significantly 

 larger fish than did the 2.5" mesh (F 1 104 =453.36, 

 P<0.001). 



With respect to set duration, the 2.5" mesh caught 

 significantly more fish (all species) than the other 

 mesh sizes over both 6 and 15 hours (F 2 12 =36.96, 

 P<0.001) but there was no significant difference be- 

 tween the two set durations in the number of fish 

 caught (Fig. 3A). The 2.5" mesh size also caught a 

 significantly greater number of species over both set 

 durations (F 2 12 =7.60, P=0.007). Again, there was no 

 significant difference between the two set durations 

 in the number of species caught (Fig. 3B). 



There was variation among species in the number 

 of fish caught at different set durations (Fig. 4, A- 

 D). The 2.5" mesh caught significantly more Odax 

 pullus per hour over both set durations (F 2 12 =5.40, 

 P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference 

 between the two set times in the number of O. pullus 

 caught per hour (F 2 12 =3.57, P=0.08). There was also 

 no significant difference between the three mesh sizes 



