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¹ Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Faculty of Fisheries, Turkey DOI : 10.4194/1303-2712-v15_1_09 Viewed : 5990 - Downloaded : 4953 The purpose of this study was to determine the amount of bycatch and discards of the purse seine fishery in the Black Sea coastal waters of Turkey. The study was conducted during the September 2009–April 2010 fishing season, sixteen purse seiner operations were sampled and their catch composition was determined. During the samplings, 26 species consisting of fish (24 species), gastropods (1 species), and crab (1 species) were caught. Two species, Engraulisen crasicolus and Trachurus mediterraneus were targeted in the operations. The total biomass was 115958.34 kg, of which 97.83 % (by weight) were identified as target species, and 2.17 % as bycatch. The weighed discard rate was determined as 1.64 %. Discard ratios of anchovy and horse mackerel operations were 1.65 % and 1.47 %, respectively. Based on depth, three depth groups were identified in terms of the amount and number of discards (G1, G2, G3) using cluster and MDS analyses. Ecological parameters of the landed and discarded groups were significantly different (ANOVA test, P<0.05). Discards from the coastal area were completely different from other ones; the result was obtained by a post-hoc multiple comparison test. Keywords : Bycatch, discard, non-target, purse seine, Black Sea