Hybrid seine for full fish community collections

Seines are simple and effective fish collection gears, but the net mesh size influences how well the catch represents the fish communities. We designed and tested a hybrid seine with a dual-mesh bag (1/4″ and 1/8″) and compared the fish assemblage collected by each mesh. The fine-mesh net retained three times as many fish and collected more species (as many as eight), including representatives of several rare species, than did the coarser mesh. The dual-mesh bag permitted us to compare both sizes and species retained by each layer and to develop species-specific abundance correction factors, which allowed comparison of catches with the coarse-mesh seine used for earlier collections. The results indicate that a hybrid seine with coarse-mesh wings and a fine-mesh bag would enhance future studies of fish communities, especially when small-bodied fishes or early life stages are the research focus.