Density and biomass of fish populations in Kirmir stream of Sakarya river, Turkey; [Sakarya nehri’nin Kirmir çayı’ndaki balık populasyonlarının yoğunluğu ve biyoması]

In this study, Zippin’s triple-catch removal method was used to estimate density and biomass of fish species in Kirmir Stream of Sakarya River, Central Anatolia Turkey. A total area of 1.5256 ha was sampled and 4167 fishes were caught using electrofishing between February 2007 and November 2007. A total of 9 fish species representing 2 families Cyprinidae and Cobitidae were recorded. Fish species identified are as follows: Chub (Leuciscus cephalus Linnaeus, 1758), barbel (Barbus plebelejus escherichi Heckel, 1843), Capoeta tinca Heckel, 1843, spirlin (Alburnoides bipunctatus Bloch, 1782), Capoeta capoeta sieboldi Steindachner, 1864, tirgis-nase (Chondrostoma regium Heckel, 1843), bleak (Alburnus orontis Sauvage, 1882), spined-loach (Cobitis taenia Linnaeus, 1758) and angora-loach (Noemacheilus angorae Steindachner, 1897). A. orontis was the most dominant species, constituting 1199 fish and 28.77% of the total fishes, followed by C. tinca (1173 fish and 28.15%), B. p. escherichi (584 fish and 14.01%), L. cephalus (454 fish and 10.90%), A. bipunctatus (322 fish and 7.73%), C. regium (245 fish and 5.88 %), N. angorae (107 fish and 2.57%) C. c. sieboldi (65 fish and 1.56%) and C. taenia (18 fish and 0.43%). The density and biomass values were estimated as 11456 fish ha-1 and 346.78 kg ha-1 in February 2007, 8982 fish ha-1 and 279.82 kg ha-1 in May 2007, 6320 fish ha-1 and 251.52 kg ha-1 in August 2007 and 2887 fish ha-1 and 168.87 kg ha-1 in November 2007, respectively. The lowest density and biomass values were observed in November 2007. © Ankara Üniversitesi Ziraat Fakültesi.