Title: Length Matters: Effects of Fishing Gear and Fishing Behavior on the Catch Efficiency of Demersal Seines
Abstract:Raiding seals pose a big problem to gillnet fishers in areas with high seal abundances. As moving to active gears could be a potential solution for that problem, one gear of particular interest in are...Raiding seals pose a big problem to gillnet fishers in areas with high seal abundances. As moving to active gears could be a potential solution for that problem, one gear of particular interest in areas with relatively flat sea bed structure is the so-called "MiniSeine" – a demersal seine that is reduced in size so it can be operated from small vessels. Besides its ability to catch most of the species targeted by gillnet fishers, it offers various advantages compared to other active gears. To reduce the gear in size to fit on a small vessel, the present study assessed how seine rope length, seine rope diameter and seine net configurations of different sizes and shapes affect the catch efficiency and the ratio of fish below minimum conservation reference size (MCRS). In general, shorter seine ropes resulted in significantly lower catches, except for the smallest seine configuration. Larger seine configurations and longer seine ropes caught generally less fish below MCRS. The seine rope diameter did not affect catches significantly. As potential "adjusting screw" to counteract lower catches due to shorter seine ropes, the effect of different layout patterns of the seine ropes on the catch efficiency was assessed. Laying out the second seine rope perpendicular to the first one can increase the fishing area while CPUE showed a tendency to be increased compared to the standard layout pattern. Besides its importance for a successful development of the MiniSeine, these findings are of equal interest for the large-scale demersal seine fishery.Read More
Publication Year: 2024
Publication Date: 2024-01-01
Language: en
Type: preprint
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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