User menu
Swordfishes (Xiphias gladius) are important pelagic fish species found in tropical waters. The species are majorly caught by industrial longlines, the nominal catches of Swordfishes in the years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 were 214MT, 16MT, 252MT and 261MT respectively. The species was encountered throughout the year with clear evidence of temporal variation in catch rates. Pooled data indicate industrial longline has an average catch rate of 1.2MT/1000hooks/Trip. The pooled data also indicates that average catch rates for swordfish were high between the months of May and November 2022 while the Low catches were recorded on the average between the months of February, April, and December 2022. The minimum and maximum fork length of the swordfish encountered in the sample were 59cm and 245 JFL cm respectively, whilst the average length was 124.5cm. Most of the species captured were within the size range of 77.5 cm-162.5 cm and Five length classes are evident from this analysis between 107.5cm to 132.5cm. The analysis indicates seasonality partly influenced the catch rates of swordfish in the Kenyan coastal waters. This temporal distribution of the swordfish catches and abundance could be partly attributed to the seasonal changes in the temperature of the sea water and availability of food in the environment. While length classes could be attributed to the different size and depth of hooks as well as length of set lines, and the specific size of individual fish targeted
