Erdoğan ÇIÇEK - Nevşehir Haci Bektas Veli University, Faculty of Art and Science, Department of Biology, ۵۰۳۰۰ Nevşehir/Turkey
Mehmet KARATAŞP - Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University, Faculty of Art and Science, Department of Biology, Karaman/Turkey
Dursun AVŞARP - Cukurova University, Faculty of Fisheries, ۰۱۳۳۰ Adana/Turkey
Mohammad Moradi - Department of Biology,Faculty of Science,University of Zanjan,Zanjan- Iran

The catch composition of the bottom trawl fishery along the coasts of Karataş wasevaluated in the 2002-2003 fishing season. A total of 110 species were registered, thefishes showing the highest diversity (8 cartilaginous, 82 teleost fish species) followedby 15 crustaceans species and 5 species of cephalopods. The highest catch per uniteffort (CPUE) value (66.8kg h-1 ) was registered in September when the fishing seasonwas opened and decreased with the lowest value occurring in March (12.5kg h-1). Theaverage CPUE was 26.3±18.9kg h-1. The fishes represented the highest proportion(79.10%) of the total catch (631.4kg), followed by crustaceans (13.73%), and lastlycephalopods (7.17%). The catch of fish decreased with depth. The highest fish catch(47.42%) was found in waters 0-20 m depth range. 35.58%, of the catch was caughtbetween 20-50 m, and 17.00% was caught between the 50-100 m depth. Lessepsianfish comprised 18.90% of all fish in terms of the number of species and 26.66% ofthe total fish catch.

Trawl fishery, species composition, Karataş, Iskenderun Bay, Mediterranean