Every animal matters! Evaluating the selectivity of a Mediterranean bottom trawl fishery from a species community perspective.

ABSTRACT: Bottom trawl fisheries often catch several species simultaneously. However, most studies addressing the catch performance and selectivity of a specific trawl focus on a few commercially important or most vulnerable species requiring management measures. By contrast, the present study considers the multispecies nature of Mediterranean bottom trawl fisheries through a holistic approach that accounts for the full species community in the catches. Specifically, we evaluated and compared the catch performance of the two codends allowed for this fishery, made of 40 mm square (SM40) and 50 mm diamond (DM50) meshes. Results showed that 50 and 80% of the catch in weight and count numbers, respectively, consisted of species without commercial value, demonstrating that large proportions of the catch

SUBMITTER: Petetta A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10035856 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature