This is fish data collected from the southeast arm of Lake Malawi using the Research Vessel Ndunduma. The vessel belongs to the Department of Fisheries in Malawi and operates with a bottom trawl net with a codend mesh size of 38mm. The data was collected in Area A, a No-go zone for commercial trawling.
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Box 593"],"city":"Lilongwe","country":"MW","createdBy":"crawler.gbif.org","modifiedBy":"crawler.gbif.org","created":"2026-03-02T18:06:32.666+00:00","modified":"2026-03-02T18:06:32.666+00:00"},{"key":6931321,"type":"ADMINISTRATIVE_POINT_OF_CONTACT","primary":true,"userId":["https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9956-5922"],"firstName":"salim","lastName":"M'balaka","position":["Chief Fisheries Officer"],"email":["ms.mbalaka@gmail.com"],"phone":["+265999724838"],"homepage":[],"organization":"Department of Fisheries","address":["P.O. 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Box 593"],"city":"Lilongwe","country":"MW","createdBy":"crawler.gbif.org","modifiedBy":"crawler.gbif.org","created":"2026-03-02T18:06:32.669+00:00","modified":"2026-03-02T18:06:32.669+00:00"}],"endpoints":[{"key":1247006,"type":"EML","url":"http://196.32.215.240:8081/ipt/eml.do?r=2019_fish_biomass_data","createdBy":"544d6a6d-93e4-497f-a571-548c888f6b51","modifiedBy":"544d6a6d-93e4-497f-a571-548c888f6b51","created":"2026-03-02T18:05:31.744+00:00","modified":"2026-03-02T18:05:31.744+00:00","machineTags":[]}],"machineTags":[{"key":33142513,"namespace":"crawler.gbif.org","name":"crawl_attempt","value":"31","createdBy":"crawler.gbif.org","created":"2026-10-12T02:11:59.271+00:00"}],"tags":[],"identifiers":[{"key":464112,"type":"UUID","identifier":"d9ae647e-2a5e-4dbb-9752-3cab456a4425","createdBy":"crawler.gbif.org","created":"2026-03-02T18:06:32.671+00:00","primary":false},{"key":464111,"type":"URL","identifier":"http://196.32.215.240:8081/ipt/resource?r=2019_fish_biomass_data","createdBy":"crawler.gbif.org","created":"2026-03-02T17:59:08.392+00:00","primary":false}],"comments":[],"bibliographicCitations":[{"text":"Sparre, P., Ursin, E., & Venema, S. C. (1989). Introduction to tropical fish stock assessment. Rome: Fisheries Technical Paper no 301 (1).","citationProvidedBySource":false},{"text":"Konings, A. (2007). Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (4 ed.). Texas: Cichlid Press.","citationProvidedBySource":false},{"text":"Turner, J. L. (1977). Some Effects of Demersal Trawling in Lake Malawi (Lake Nyassa) from 1968 to 1974. Journal of Fish Biology, 2161-2171","citationProvidedBySource":false},{"text":"Pauly, D. (1983). Some simple methods for the assessment of tropical fish stocks. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome, Italy","citationProvidedBySource":false}],"curatorialUnits":[],"taxonomicCoverages":[],"geographicCoverages":[{"description":"The survey for this data was conducted in the southeast arm of Lake Malawi, Malawi.","boundingBox":{"minLatitude":-90.0,"maxLatitude":90.0,"minLongitude":-180.0,"maxLongitude":180.0,"globalCoverage":true}}],"temporalCoverages":[],"keywordCollections":[{"thesaurus":"GBIF Dataset Type Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_type.xml","keywords":["illegal fishing","catches","cichlids","shallow water","trawling"]}],"project":{"title":"2019 Diversity Assessment Survey Data for the Southeast Arm of Lake Malawi","identifier":"Lake Malawi fishes","contacts":[{"type":"POINT_OF_CONTACT","primary":false,"userId":["https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9956-5922"],"firstName":"Salim","lastName":"M'balaka","position":[],"email":[],"phone":[],"homepage":[],"address":[]},{"type":"REVIEWER","primary":false,"userId":[],"firstName":"Geoffrey","lastName":"Kanyerere","position":[],"email":[],"phone":[],"homepage":[],"address":[]}],"funding":"United States Agency for International Development (USAID)","awards":[],"studyAreaDescription":"The survey was conducted in Area A of the southern Lake Malawi. The area is considered to be the most productive part of the lake hence it was designated a breeding and nursery area for shallow water fish species especially tilapias, Oreochromis species. The area is located in the furtherest end of Lake Malawi and it connects with the Shire River. Because of its productivity and its capacity to provide consisive environment for fish breeding and spawning, in 2001, the area was declared a No-go zone for any commercial fishing","designDescription":"Sampling was based on a fixed station methodology, used in previous surveys in 1999 and 2007. Trawl samples were collected using the research vessel RV Ndunduma, a 17.5m stern trawler, which is powered by a 386 Hp Caterpillar engine. The fishing gear used was a Gullotopur bottom trawl net that has horizontal and vertical openings of about 17m and 5m, respectively with a 38mm codend. Two trawl doors weighing 400kg each were fixed to open the net and maintain the required depth. Trawling was confined within the stipulated transects and the hauling duration was restricted to 30 minutes. Sampling stations or transects were located using an onboard Global Positioning System (GPS) which was complemented by existing Maps. A total of seven transect was systematically spread in the study area to ensure the achieves equidistance between stations.","relatedProjects":[],"abstract":"A biomass trawl survey was conducted in April, 2019. Sampling was based on a fixed station methodology, used in previous surveys. The objective of the trawl survey was to monitor the health status of the fish stocks in Area A of the southeast arm of Lake Malawi by addressing the following specific objectives: to determine fish species composition and size distribution in Area A of the SEA of Lake Malawi, to assess current fish biomass levels in Area A of the SEA Lake Malawi and to make management recommendations based on the findings of the survey"},"samplingDescription":{"studyExtent":"The study was conducted in Area A of the southeast arm of Lake Malawi, covering a total of seven already existing transects. The study did not go beyond 5m, restricted by the size of the research vessel","sampling":"Sampling and recording of the catch closely followed the guidelines outlined by Pauly (1963) and Sparre and Venema. (1989). At each station, the catch was sorted by species by Scientists from the fisheries research institutions. Total weight and individual lengths were recorded for each species. Additional biological observations were recorded. Data collection forms were designed and used to capture all the data.","qualityControl":"The following were the data quality controls;\na. An orientation session was organised for all researchers and crew members to understand the scope of the work\nb. Data collection tools were pretested to ensure that correct and timely data is being collected\nc. Close supervision was there every time samples were being processed\nd. The captain for the sampling session was strictly observed for adherence to the transects and trawling duration","methodSteps":["Data processing- entry, cleaning and summaries were conducted using Microsoft Excel\n\nGeospatial analysis in ArcGIS 10.4 was used in map production and enhancing estimation of fish biomass"]},"countryCoverage":[],"collections":[],"dataDescriptions":[],"dataLanguage":"eng","purpose":"To add to the existing pool of data
","additionalInfo":"This data has already been used in a peer reviewed paper","pubDate":"2026-03-02T00:00:00.000+00:00","maintenanceUpdateFrequency":"AS_NEEDED","maintenanceDescription":"This information will be reviewed biannually","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","approximateCounts":{"occurrenceCount":0}}