Some factors influencing the size of fishes caught in gillnets in eastern cape estuaries

Abstract The mean standard length and length range of 10 common eastern Cape estuarine fish, caught in five different gillnet mesh sizes, are given. With the exception of the sea-catfish, Tachysurus feliceps , larger meshes caught larger fish. Factors such as body appendages and shape played an important role in determining the particular way in which fish are caught in gillnets. The results can help researchers to use gillnets of the correct meshes for sampling a specific size-range of similarly shaped fish species.