Fishing capacity and bycatch on spring net pot for conger eel by entrance size

Abstract

This study was conducted to analyze fishing capacity and bycatch by mesh size and entrance size of spring net pot conducted by water tank and field experiment. The water tank experiments were conducted by using traps with mesh size of 22 mm and entrance size of 120 mm and 140 mm, respectively in the water tank of NIFS. The field experiment was conducted using 5 kinds of spring net pot with mesh sizes of 20 mm, 22 mm, 35 mm and entrance size of 120 mm, 130 mm, 140 mm, 360 mm by coastal trap fishery vessel operating around the area of Geoje island. In the result of water tank experiments, the catch of conger eel was 1.5 times higher when using trap with entrance size of 140 mm than that of 120 mm. In the field experiment, when using same mesh size, the larger the entrance size, the higher amount of conger eel catch, bycatch and number of bycatch species. When using the same entrance size, the larger the mesh size, the lower amount of conger eel catch and number of bycatch species, whereas the amount of bycatch showed increasing trend.