Recent declining trends in pelagic fish catches in the Indian ocean off Sri Lanka: is gill oxygen limitation theory (GOLT) a possible explanation?

Gunwardane, Nuwan D. P. and De Croos, M.D.S.T. and Amarasinghe, Upali S. (2024) Recent declining trends in pelagic fish catches in the Indian ocean off Sri Lanka: is gill oxygen limitation theory (GOLT) a possible explanation? Asian Fisheries Science Journal (Malaysia), 37. pp. 69-80. ISSN 2073-3720

Recent trends in the pelagic fish landings of multi-day fishing fleets operated from Sri Lanka indicated significant declines in many fish species. Therefore, the present preliminary analysis investigates the perceptions of fishers on recent declining trends of pelagic fish landings from offshore areas of the Indian Ocean and further investigates whether the most common pelagic species landed in Sri Lanka conform to the gill oxygen limitation theory (GOLT) and to speculate GOLT as a possible explanation to such trends. According to the perceptions of 457 skippers of fishing vessels interviewed, such declines were possibly attributed to shifting of the areas of occurrence of pelagic fish species, making them less vulnerable to multi-day fishing vessels. As climate change and deoxygenation are major stressors affecting fish stocks, there is a challenging need for disentangling the impacts of these stressors from the effects of overfishing. The 18 most common pelagic fish species harvested from the Indian Ocean confirmed to the predictions from the GOLT, suggesting that shifting of these stocks could be due to deoxygenation which may have been triggered by increased sea surface and sub-surface temperatures. Therefore, fishery-independent surveys are needed to investigate the shifting of areas of occurrence of pelagic fishes in the Indian Ocean to understand their areas of occurrence the further investigate the relevance of GOLT for defining regional fisheries management plans.

Full text available from: Official URL: https://www.asianfisheriessociety.org/publication/...

Abstract

Recent trends in the pelagic fish landings of multi-day fishing fleets operated from Sri Lanka indicated significant declines in many fish species. Therefore, the present preliminary analysis investigates the perceptions of fishers on recent declining trends of pelagic fish landings from offshore areas of the Indian Ocean and further investigates whether the most common pelagic species landed in Sri Lanka conform to the gill oxygen limitation theory (GOLT) and to speculate GOLT as a possible explanation to such trends. According to the perceptions of 457 skippers of fishing vessels interviewed, such declines were possibly attributed to shifting of the areas of occurrence of pelagic fish species, making them less vulnerable to multi-day fishing vessels. As climate change and deoxygenation are major stressors affecting fish stocks, there is a challenging need for disentangling the impacts of these stressors from the effects of overfishing. The 18 most common pelagic fish species harvested from the Indian Ocean confirmed to the predictions from the GOLT, suggesting that shifting of these stocks could be due to deoxygenation which may have been triggered by increased sea surface and sub-surface temperatures. Therefore, fishery-independent surveys are needed to investigate the shifting of areas of occurrence of pelagic fishes in the Indian Ocean to understand their areas of occurrence the further investigate the relevance of GOLT for defining regional fisheries management plans.

[error in script]

Item Type:	Article
AGROVOC Term:	pelagic fish
AGROVOC Term:	pelagic fisheries
AGROVOC Term:	fishing
AGROVOC Term:	research
AGROVOC Term:	fishery data
AGROVOC Term:	stock assessment
AGROVOC Term:	fishery stocks
AGROVOC Term:	population number
AGROVOC Term:	fishery resources
AGROVOC Term:	marine ecosystems
Geographical Term:	Sri Lanka
Uncontrolled Keywords:	climate change adaptations, highly migratory fish, tropical tuna, multi-day fishing
Depositing User:	Nor Hasnita Abdul Samat
Date Deposited:	29 Jan 2026 03:29
Last Modified:	29 Jan 2026 03:29
URI:	http://webagris.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/2531

Actions (login required)

View Item