Species Composition, Distribution, Biomass Trends and Exploitation of Dominant Fish Species in Manila Bay using Experimental Trawl Survey Adonis P. Bendaño 1 , Grace DV. Lopez 1 , Marco A. Perez 2 , Mudjekeewis D. Santos 1 , and Francisco SB. Torres Jr. 1* 1 Vertebrate Section 2 Fishing Technology Section Capture Fisheries Research and Development Division National Fisheries Research and Development Institute *Corresponding Author: francisco_torresjr@yahoo.com Abstract An experimental trawl fshing survey was conducted in Manila Bay from March 2014 to Octo- ber 2015 at sixteen (16) pre-established dragging stations adapted from an earlier study (MADE- COR, 1995). Using a commercial oter trawl, the average trawling speed during fshing operations was 6-7 km/hour. Analysis of catches focused on biomass trends, species composition, distribu- tion and exploitation of dominant species. A total of 146 fsh and invertebrate species belonging to 48 families were recorded during the survey period wherein most of the catches were dominated by small pelagic species such as anchovies and sardines. Exploitation rates (E) for the six (6) dom- inant species (Sardinella gibbosa, Sardinella fmbriata, Valamugil seheli, Mugil cephalus, Encrasicho- lina devisi and Stolephorous commersonnii) shows signs of overfshing. The estimated demersal fsh biomass of the bay revealed that the relative decline was about 90% from the 1947 baseline study. Keywords: Manila Bay, overfshing, demersal fsh biomass, trawl 31 Te Philippine Journal of Fisheries 24(1): 31-46 DOI: 10.31398/tpjf/24.1.2016A0002 January - June 2017 brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Aquatic Commons