Reducing discards in Shrimp fisheries with the Letterbox

Two gear adjustments for reducing discards in brown shrimp fisheries were compared; the sievenet and the letterbox. Sievenets are already used in the Netherlands since 2002 and are cone-shaped nets inserted into standard trawls, which direct unwanted by-catch to an escape hole in the body of the trawl. The letterbox is a new gear adjustment that consists of a release hole transversely over the net. The idea is that the shrimps go over the hole in the net, while flatfish can escape through the release hole. In this research paired comparisons were made between the letterbox and the sievenet to... Mehr ...