Effect of electrofishing on some fish species in Qarmat ali river and east Hammar marsh, Basrah, Iraq

Abstract EN

This study was conducted to show the effects of electrofishing on fish species caught by the electricity method widely common in Basrah province.

The study was carried out in the Qarmat Ali river East Hammar marsh, which focused on the kinds of damages and injuries caused by this method to capture the fishes and based on the Reynolds Criteria (severity classification) divides the injuries into three ranks of the skeletal deformation and hemorrhagic injuries.

Eight fish species were caught : Poecilia latipinna, Carassius auratus (Prussian carp), Planiliza abu, P.

subviridis, Silurus triostegus (Catfish), and three species of Tilapia are Coptodon zillii, Oreochromis aureus, O.

niloticus.

The injuries varied depending on the species and the size and surface area of the fishes.

It was noted that the P.

latipinna, P.

abu, P.

subviridis in this way were not affected by electrofishing, while the first category injuries which include hemorrhage outside the spinal column and fusion or deformity of the vertebrae, and the second category injuries which included hemorrhage near the spinal column for one or two vertebrae or misalignment in the vertebrae or spine curvature distributed on Tilapia species and Prussian carp.

The third degree of injuries, which included hemorrhage in the spine area of more than two vertebrae found in catfish only, while not seen any case of crashes or vertebrae separation of the spine of the third category of vertebral injury.