Fishery survey using acoustics and environmental characterization of some demersal resources in the Colombian Caribbean.

Abstract

Within the framework of the fishing program Vecep (Inpa-Colombia) a pilot acoustic survey was carried out for the reconnaissance of bottoms and demersal resources, previous to the evaluation by the swept area method made by the same program. The survey was made in the strip between the outer limit of the artisanal fishing zone and the external edge of the continental shelf, and from Punta Gallinas to Cabo Tiburón, on the Colombian Caribbean.  Some fishing operations with bottom long lines also took place, as well as oceanographic stations in all the wurveyed area.  Although some resultos of interest were disclosed to the businessmen in the fishing sector through a technical bulletin and a workshop, the main results had not yet been formally published.  The present work rescues the most important aspects from the fishing and oceanographic point of view, making emphasis on the environmental conditions in the sites where groupers and snappers were caught.