Availability of Marine Fishes in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh: A Case Study on the BFDC Landing Center

Abstract Fish availability in the coastal landing center highlights the assumption of stocks in the marine fishing zone of the ocean. This study, therefore, aimed to analyze the availability of marine fishes in the Bangladesh Fisheries Development Corporation (BFDC) landing center, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh between January 2021 and May 2021. A total of 54 species were recorded, of which 42 were marine fishes, 7 were shellfishes and 5 were large fishes. The dominant orders were Perciformes (56%), Scombriformes (17%) and Clupeiformes (10%). More than 56% of the total marine fishes were classified as Least Concern, nearly 10% were categorized as Near Threatened and 2% were marked Vulnerable. The dominant orders of shellfish were Portunidae (43%), followed by Penaidae (29%), Loligonidae (14%) and Octopopidae (14%). Shrimp Penaeous monodon had the highest consumer demand, whereas consumer demand for non-conventional shellfish was comparatively low. Most of the shellfish were categorized as Least Concern. Among large fishes, the wider availability of sharks (five species) and rays (two species) was observed in the winter and monsoon season, although the consumer demand for those large fishes was low. The Vulnerable sharks and rays were Sphyma zygaena and Mobula birostris. This study elucidates the present scenario of marine fishes in the BFDC fish landing center, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.