The potential of gear modifications to improve species selectivity of beam trawls (Josip Maleš)

Beschrijving

Beam trawl fisheries are amongst the greatest generators of discards in the North Sea. Improving species selectivity through gear modifications can potentially mitigate this impact. This study will test address this potential through gear modifications that attempt vertical species separation, e.g. separation of flatfish and roundfish or potentially separating sole from plaice. Fishing is performed simultaneously with two beam trawls: a standard and a modified gear. The total catch is weighed and sorted per side. The lengths of commercial fish species are measured to the nearest centimeter below. These data allow analysis of the length composition per species for each of the trawls and comparison between the standard and experimental net. The changes in length selectivity of commercial fish species are statistically investigated using a standardized methodology for catch comparison.

Periode	2012
Gehouden op	Ghent University, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Biology, Marine Biology Section / Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO), België