Discarding by the demersal fishery in the waters around Ireland

Discarding in the North Sea and on the historical efficacy of gear-based technical measures in reducing discards

“…Beam trawlers discard the most (fish, cephalopods and Nephrops norvegicus combined) (42%) within the study fleet and also the greatest proportion of their catches by number (59%) (Tables 2 and 3). These values compare well with earlier estimates of discarding by beam trawl fleets operating in the North Sea (Lindeboom and de Groot, 1998) and in ICES subarea VII (Borges et al, 2005b;Enever et al, 2007). Kelleher (2005) estimated that the discarding of fish, cephalopods and Nephrops norvegicus in the North Sea amounted to 759,409 t per year.…”

Reducing flatfish bycatch in roundfish fisheries

“…Flatfish bycatch contributes substantially to the volume of discards in many demersal trawl fisheries around the world (StorrPaulsen et al, 2012;Anon, 2011;Branch, 2006;Borges et al, 2005). This is often the result of a mismatch between the selectivity properties of the gear and the specific characteristics of flatfish morphology.…”

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“…By-catch usually refers to non-target captured organisms which are retained for sale or use, while discards are unusable or unwanted ones that are thrown back to sea because of either low value or regulatory requirements (Harrington et al, 2005). By-catch and discard data are important not only for managing the fisheries but also for biological information (species abundance and distribution) in the surveyed areas and for monitoring the behaviour of fishing fleets (Borges et al, 2005). Previous studies concerning the shellfish fisheries indicate that the proportion of discards to the total catch varies between 30% and 70%, depending on area, season and gear type (Tuck et al, 2000;Pranovi et al, 2001;Hauton et al, 2003;Morello et al, 2005).…”