Vitality insights of fish escaping from a sorting grid installed on a bottom trawl net.

ABSTRACT: Sorting grids to exclude the juveniles of species targeted by bottom trawl fisheries from the catch are among the most promising solutions to reduce discards. We tested a two-sections Juveniles' Sorting Grid (JSG) in a Mediterranean fisheries restricted area. First, we provided information on the vitality of individuals escaping from the JSG bars during towing, by analysing underwater footage. Then, we evaluated the catch performance of the JSG-equipped trawl compared to a standard trawl by analysing both the full species community in the catches and the main commercial species. The probability for individuals to be alive while escaping from JSG was always higher than 65% (on average), with some species (e.g. red mullet, gurnards, 91-99% on average) showing significantly higher probability

SUBMITTER: Petetta A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11696904 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature