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¹ Prince of Songkla University,Marine and Coastal Resources Institute, Songkhla, Thailand
² Prince of Songkla University, Faculty Science and Technology, Pattani, Thailand
³ Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Institute of Tropical Aquaculture, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia
⁴ Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia DOI : 10.4194/1303-2712-v15_3_21 Viewed : 5139 - Downloaded : 5717 This study assessed bycatch composition and some factors affected assemblage from blue swimming crab fisheries in semi-enclosed Pattani Bay and offshore area, the Gulf of Thailand. Samples were collected from May 2013 to September 2014 by using crab gill net. One hundred seventy four of bycatches were found within proportion of 52.2% in the bay and 49.5% from offshore. Moreover, discarded species from the bay and offshore were 26.3% and 47.1%, respectively. The most dominant species in the bay was horse shoe crab (Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda) while offshore was scaly whipray (Himantura imbricate). Abundance of bycatch in the bay was affected both by habitat (P<0.005) and season (P<0.001) while abundance from offshore was affected only by season (P<0.05). Species richness of bycatch both in the bay and offshore were influenced significantly by season (P<0.001 and P<0.005, respectively). The most abundance bycatch in the bay was found in the inner bay while at 15m depth for offshore. The result of nMDS ordination indicated a separation of three major groups of assemblage in the bay; inner, middle and outer bay but there was no obvious segregation from offshore. Keywords : Portunidae; small scale fisheries; coastal habitat; Pattani Bay; discarded species; South China Sea