The Artisanal fishery in the Sepik-Ramu catchment area, Papua New Guinea

A survey in 25 villages in the Sepik-Ramu basin revealed that fishing was practised in all villages surveyed. The participation in catching fish decreased from 42% of the population of villages situated below 200 m altitude to 23.4% of villages al altitudes above 1,000 111, 111ain(v as a result of the lower involvement in fishing of women and girls at higher altitudes. Females contributed half of the estimated total fish yield of respondents living below 100 m. altitude, and 33% of the annual total yield of the whole catchment, which was estimated at 8,200 tons. At high (>1000 m) and middle altitude (200 - 1000m above sea level) most villages had only access to creeks or small rivers. At low altitudes (<200 m above sea level) most villages surveyed had access to big rivers, swamps or lakes. Average yield/person/trip with various gears and in various waters are reported. Eels Anguilla spp and Cyprinus carpio dominated the catch of respondents living at high altitude levels. At low altitude levels half of/he catch consisted of Oreochromis mossambicus. This species plus C. carpio contributed 42% of the weight of the total catch of the Sepik-Ramu area. The part of the fishing respondents that believed that the exotic species C. carpio and/or O. mossambicus had affected the numbers of native fish species decreased with increasing altitude level. At the high altitude Gobiidae were often mentioned to have decreased in number after the arrival of C. carpio.