Contribution No. 135 of SEAFDEC Aquaculture Department.

From 5 May 1981 to 7 November 1981 a total of 122,841 specimens of milkfish fry and early juvenile fishes was collected with the use of a milkfish fry sweeper. Of these, 66,361 or 54.02% consisted of early juvenile stages of 30 species of finfish and the rest were 56,480 milkfish fry of 45.98% of the total collection. The most abundant finfish excluding milkfish fry was Ambassis sp. comprising 59.43% of the total fish catch, followed by Elops machnata, 12.7%; Sillago sihama, 8.66% Gobiidae, 6.11%; Therapon jarbua, 5.49% Stolephorus sp., 2.06%; Chonoporus sp., 1.53%; Mullet, 0.97% and Scatophagus argus, 0.32%. The rest of the species combined comprised less than 1%. Water temperature, pH and dissolved oxygen (D.O.) showed inverse relationships with fish abundance at the early hours of the day (0800H-1200H) but incosistent correlations were noted during night time when these parameters were rather constant. Salinity did not show any correlation to fish abundance although more species were collected after a heavy downpour. Fish catch was higher during low tide than at high tide.