Application of generalized linear modeling to catch rate analysis of Western Mediterranean fisheries: the Castellón trawl fleet as a case study
Date
1999Type
research articleKeywords
Abundance indicesCatch-per-unit-effort
Groundfish trawl fisheries
Fishing capacity
Generalized linear models
Western Mediterranean
Abstract
Generalized linear modeling (GLM) is used to analyze hake catch rates in the Spanish trawl fleet fishing off Castellón (E Iberian Peninsula) between 1991 and 1996 and to provide consistent indices of abundance. Main effects in the models include a factor for vessel tonnage, to adjust for characteristics that determine fishing power, as well as factors for year, month and fishing closure. Vessel tonnage, season and year are shown to have a significant effect on hake catch rates, with vessel capacity alone explaining about 54% of the total variation in the data. Significant interactions indicate that monthly fluctuations in catch rates differed by year probably in relation to the timing of hake recruitment and of the bimonthly annual closure of the fishery. Hake abundance indices, as derived from the year coefficients in the model, were intermediate in 1991 and 1992, low in 1994 and 1995 and high in 1993 and 1996. This result is corroborated by abundance indices from survey estimates for ...