Seagrass macroinvertebrate bycatches support mosquito net trawl fishery in Madagascar

The use of mosquito nets, primarily for targeting small and/or juvenile fish, has rapidly increased in Western Indian Ocean shallow seagrass beds and coral reefs over the last 20 years. However, to date, invertebrate by-catch by locally-made fishing gear not been reported. We studied net trawl fishery areas Bay Toliara, Southwest Madagascar through GPS tracking fishers from August 2018 February 2019. Catches were monitored monthly landing surveys characterize spatial temporal patterns abundance diversity macroinvertebrates beds. Fishing was carried out at low tide, mostly night, pulling a hand-made varying dimensions. Overall, 43 macroinvertebrate taxa identified 217,080 individuals collected 109 catch samples. generally composed crustaceans (mainly Portunidae, Processidae, Penaeidae, Alpheidae). crab Thalamita mitsiensis largely dominated biomass assemblage (from 6% 100% 5 overall density biomass, respectively). Macroinvertebrates 1.5% total per trip (i.e., 4–55 kg −1 ). They sold human consumption or animal feed, which provided additional income (USD 1–24 1–72% trip). This study revealed that resources provide valuable small-scale Madagascar. bycatch generates further encourages trawls exacerbates their negative effects on coastal ecosystems fisheries.