Bottom trawls specifications and their relation with the stock of Rhabdosargus haffara in the Gulf of Suez, Red Sea Egypt.

This study was conducted at Attaka harbor in the Gulf of Suez (Red Sea) during the 2018-2020 fishing seasons to assess the technical specifications of trawl nets, morphometric characteristics of haffara sea bream (Rhabdosargus haffara), and their selectivity parameters. Results indicated that these trawl nets have different design characteristics; it depends on the technical characters of the trawler (i.e. horsepower, length of trawler). The hanging ratio of the bottom trawl ranged from 0.44 to 0.76, while the horizontal opening of the net ranged from 17.91 to 30.94 m. The length-weight relationship (LWR) of Rhabdosargus haffara had a significant correlation and the exponent b was observed to be 3.03. On the other hand, length-girth and length depth were analyzed and the correlation coefficients were determined to be 0.85 and 0.80, respectively. Lengths at first capture (L₅₀) for male, female, and combined sexes were 12.67, 14.45 and 13.17 cm, respectively; which were higher than the minimum landing size. This information may be used by fishery managers to get an approximate estimate of the bottom trawl effect and to design appropriate marine spatial planning.