Objective
A. To investigate survival of roundfish and Nephrops after escaping from commercial fishing cod-ends, and Nephrops survival after being discarded from the vessel's deck.
B. To quantify the effects of demersal trawling duration and towing speed on the survival of commercially important roundfish after their escape from the cod-end.
C. To assess the implications of this information for fisheries management of fish and Nephrops stocks.
A sheltered site will be chosen in each of the three years of the project, and cages set up for housing fish and Nephrops for survival monitoring. Cages for Nephrops will be equipped with artificial burrows to prevent cannibalism and fighting. Each experimental category will be triplicated in order to assess variability of the results. Triplicated controls will also be set up. Control fish will be caught with rod and line on barbless hooks. Control Nephrops will be caught by creel.
A commercial fishing vessel will be chartered in each of the three years to catch Nephrops and/or fish for the experiments. The vessel will be typical of those operating in mixed fish and Nephrops fisheries. New trawls and cod-ends of the appropriate size and types will be purchased.
Selectivity of the fishing gears used will be assessed using either the covered cod-end or twin trawl technique, depending on the capability of the vessel chartered.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
9850 Hirtshals
Denmark