Functional traits illuminate the selective impacts of different fishing gears on coral reefs, Coastal Kenya, 2010 and 2016, Species names linked to functional traits

This dataset contains fish catch data collected from 25 landing sites in the coast of Kenya. Observers identified landed catch to species level and recorded the number, size (total length in cm), gear used, landing site name, and date. Although all sampling was conducted during daylight hours, these include catches attributed to night-time fishing activities as observers also intercepted fishers returning from their overnight fishing. At least 8 days of data collection were achieved every month, translating into a total of 599 sampling days over the 10 year survey period. Information captured in the dataset include species names, family, gears used, and functional traits of species related to their diet, body size, depth, position in water column, period of activity, schooling behaviour. This data was used produce a research article "Functional traits illuminate the selective impacts of different fishing gears on coral reefs" published in the journal of applied ecology.