Special Proceedings: The 8th International Fisheries Symposium 2018 "Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture for the Benefits of Mankind" November 18–21, 2018, Hat Yai, Thailand Factors Affecting Fish Fingerling Distribution in Andaman Coastal Zone of Trang Province Kunwadee Srisuan1,, Sarawuth Chesoh2*, and Apiradee Lim2 1Pattani Aquaculture Research and Development Center, Department of Fisheries, Pattani, 94160, Thailand 2Faculty of Science and Technology, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus, Pattani, 94000, Thailand * Corresponding author: [email protected] Abstract This study aimed to investigate influencing factors on fish fingerling distribution in Andaman coast of Trang province of Thailand. Four sampling sites were monthly collected by bongo nets along coastline (Yong star, Ta-Se, Li Bong and Pak Meng) from September 2015 to August 2016. Family taxon was identified, counted and then calculated density. Seventeen water quality parameters were measured following the standard methods. A total of 41 difference fish families was commonly trapped in the average density of 1,542.2 individuals per 1,000 cubic meters of water volume (900–2,171). A log(C+1) transformation and factor analysis were used to group fingerling cluster. The association between fingerling abundance and sampling site, month, and some significant water quality parameters were examined. Results indicated that factor 1 was represented by 21 major brackish fish families. Factors 2 represented a minor group of 7 saline families while Factor 3 represented 13 ubiquitous rare families. All reached maximum levels during June to July year-round. Abundance was associated with month and sampling site whereas offshore fish fingerling associated with sulfate concentration. The finding confirmed seasonal effects and habitat preferences of distinct three groups of fish families. Overall water quality was in rank of the Thailand coastal marine water quality standards. Keywords: Fish larvae, Abundance, Factor analysis, Indian ocean, South Thailand. 1. Introduction Fish is recognized as a common food of human providing valuable nutrition particularly the essential diet omega-3 fatty acid. Demand of fish consumption is very high annually while the volume of global fishing capture is dramatically decreasing. Fish fingerling is defined as a stage of fish that the scale and fin is developed completely look like adult but small size (Kang, Lee, Hwang, & Han, 2014). Density of fish fingerlings is related to amount of adult fish (Saheem, Lim, & Chesoh, 2014). If abundance of fish fingerlings is high, density of fish adults will be high in number as well. In contrast if abundance of fish fingerlings is decreasing, the number of fish adult will reduce. Therefore, scientists are interested in investigating on abundance of fish fingerlings. Moreover, fish fingerling is a sensitive bio-indicator because they can live only in fertile environment such as coastal zone or mangrove (Laegdsgaard and Johnson, 2001). These such fertile habitats present plenty of phytoplankton, zooplankton and shelters for feeding and predator protecting (Ooi & Chong, 2011). 1 Special Proceedings: The 8th International Fisheries Symposium 2018 "Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture for the Benefits of Mankind" November 18–21, 2018, Hat Yai, Thailand Environment factors including water quality and climate condition are indicators for predicting aquatic organism’s health as reported in Mediterranean Sea (Sabatés, Olivar, Salat, Palomera, & Alemany, 2007). The distribution of anchovy and sardine were different in water depth. Mostly of anchovy found in surface water but sardine presented between surface water area to pelagic zone and related to salinity and water temperature in tropical zone (Sloterdijk et al., 2017). Fish larvae abundance in mangrove ecosystem depended on water turbidity and transparency (Blaber et al., 1997). Moreover, investigating wild Nile Tilapia population between Crocodile Lake and Lake Turkana in Kenya found that different environment (pH, alkalinity and conductivity) induced a difference fish body shapes (Ndiwa, Nyingi, Claude, & Agnèse, 2016). Trang province is located on the west coast of Andaman sea in the south of Thailand. Coastal line stretches about 150 kilometers in length starting from Palian district to Hat Samran district, Kantang district and ending at Sikao District, covering about 4,941.5 square kilometers. Trang’s coastal zone is the home of marine resource richness such as diversified coral reef, seagrass beds for Dugong especially at the Had Chao Mai Marine National Park, Ta Libong Island Non-Hunting area and the Trang River estuaries adjacent (Phinrub, W., Montien-Art, Promya, & Suvarnaraksha, 2015). In 2015, a total fish catch of Trang was about 70,058 metric tons (Department of Fisheries, 2017). Tongnunui (2010) investigated fish larvae along Sikao District and reported that Teraponid was the highest abundance. However, rare of reported study that using environmental factor to predict the density of fish fingerling in this region. Therefore, this study attempts to evaluate the relationship between abundance of fish fingerlings by using factor analysis to clustering fish family and then multiple linear regression was also created. The finding of this study will be an example of spatial and temporal variations in the relationship between coastal environments and fish fingerlings in this region. 2. Materials and Methods Secondary data were obtained from the aquatic ecological database of Prince of Songkla University, Pattani campus (Chesoh, Lim, Rungchuay, Lueangthuwapranit, & Kooburat, 2016). Data were monthly collected from September 2015 to August 2016. Forty- one of difference families of fish fingerlings from four sampling sites were collected and classified. Four stations namely Yong star, Ta-Se, Li Bong and Pak Meng were represented four coastal districts of Palian, Hat Samran, Kantang and Sikao District, respectively. Firstly, the numbers of each fish fingerling family were transformed using log(c+1) for removed non-normality and to satisfy normal distributional assumptions. Factor analysis with varimax rotation was fitted using maximum likelihood and used to group fingerling families into few factors. Factor score were estimated as linear combinations of original transformed fingerling Secondly, seventeen water quality parameters (Water depth, Temperature, Transparency, Salinity, Conductivity, Turbidity, pH, DO, BOD, TDS, alkalinity, Hardness, TSS, Oil & Grease, Chloride, Sulfate, and Total coliform bacteria) were investigated correlation. Six water quality parameters were selected to fit models; water depth, salinity, transparency, temperature, DO and Sulfate. Multiple linear regression was used to investigate the relationship between fingerling abundance and month, sampling site, and those 6 water quality parameters which attempt to estimate the mean value of dependent 2 Special Proceedings: The 8th International Fisheries Symposium 2018 "Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture for the Benefits of Mankind" November 18–21, 2018, Hat Yai, Thailand variable on the basis of the known values of predictor variables (Martina & Ahmad, 2010). The equation for multiple linear regression is constructed in equation k y = α + ∑i=1 αkxik Where y is factor of fish fingerlings, xi are month, site, and 6 water qualities and α is coefficient. For explain the model how was good model using r-square. 3. Results and Discussion 3.1 General Abundance of Fingerling Occurrences A total of 41 fish fingerling families was found in study period. General abundance of fingerling occurrences can be classified into 3 groups: fish fingerling 36 families (70.8%), shrimp 4 families (26.6%) and squid 1 family (2.6%). Most of them were fish larvae. Gobiidae was the most commonly found accounted for 7.5% followed by Engraulidae 7.2%, Ambassidae 6.7%, Clupeidae 6.4%, Mugilidae 5.9% and Leiognathidae 5.8%, respectively. Total amount of fingerling found was 1,542.2 individuals per 1,000 cubic meters. This result agree with a study conducted in mangrove estuary in Trang Province that reported Gobiidae was mostly diverse (Ikejima, Tongnunui, Medej, & Taniuchi, 2003). In addition, Pak Meng showed a higher percentage of fingerling occurrence (27.7%), followed by Yong Star (27%), Ta Se (23%) and Li Bong (22.3%), respectively. 3.2 Clustering of Fingerling Community Structure To group of forty-one families of fish fingerling based on factor analysis, we got 3 factors. Factor 1 was represented by the major group of 21 families including Ambassidae, Apogonidae, Blenniidae, Ariidae, Atherinidae, Gerreidae, Scatophagidae, Penaeidae, Syngnathidae, Gobiidae, Synodontidae, Megalopidae, Cynoglossidae, Sciaenidae, Carangidae, Engraulidae, Exocoetidae, Leiognathidae, Hemiramphidae, Sergestidae and Siganidae. Factor 2 represented a medium group of Scorpiaenidae, Sillaginidae, Sphyraenidae, Platycephalidae, paracephalopod, Teraponidae and Clupeidae. In addition, factor 3 consisted of 13-family uniqueness could not group to any factors because of high uniquenesses. These thirteen families were Palaemonidae, Callionymidae, Bothidae, Bregmacerotidae, Mullidae, Lutjanidae, Monacanthidae, Labridae, Mysidae, Elopidae, Soleidae, Belonidae and Mugilidae, as shown in Figure 1. 3 Special Proceedings: The 8th International Fisheries Symposium 2018 "Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture for the Benefits of Mankind" November 18–21, 2018, Hat Yai, Thailand Figure 1. Show distribution of 3 groups (factors) of abundance