Investigation of bycatch and discards of funnel net in the coastal waters of Yeosu

Abstract

This investigation was carried out to research on the actual states for bycatch and discards of catches caught by funnel net from December, 2007 to June, 2010. Fishing grounds were Manheung-dong and Ocheon-dong in the coastal waters of Yeosu. The number of the investigation was 21 in Manheung-dong and 7 in Ocheondong fishing ground. In Manheung-dong, the species of catches were 26 of fish, 6 of cephalopod and 5 of crustacean. In Ocheon-dong, the species of catches were 25 of fish, 6 of cephalopod and 4 of crustacean. In the two all fishing grounds, the largest amount of species was revealed as gray mullet. Among these catches, the number of non marketable species that were classified and discarded ones, were 9 in Manheung-dong and 7 in Ocheon-dong. Also, among the marketable species which were small entity or too tiny catches to commercialize and not fresh ones were discarded. The proportion that they dominate in the whole catches was 37.1% in the number of catches and 5.4% in the weight of catches in Manheung-dong, and 6.9% in the number of catches and 0.3% in the weight of catches in Ocheon-dong. In case of Manheung-dong, the monthly discarding proportion was the highest with 59.4% in the number of catches in may and 17.6% in the *Corresponding