• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.62-69
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• 2011

The effects of actively stimulating devices (ASD) on juvenile flatfish escape were studied to increase escape rates from the cod end by encouraging fish to approach the net wall. Two kinds of ASD were designed: a fluttering net panel, i.e., a free-end flag-like net panel, and a double conical rope array. Escape responses of juvenile bastard halibut were observed in a circulating water channel using two model cod ends, one made with diamond-shaped 43-mm-mesh-size polyethylene (PE) as a high-contrast cod end and the other with polyamid (PA) mono-ply as a low-contrast cod end. Retention rate was significantly lower with the double conical rope-array ASD in the PE cod end than with conventional PE cod ends only or the fluttering net-panel ASD inside the PE cod end. Mean retention rate with the low-contrast PA cod end was also significantly lower than that with the high-contrast PE conventional cod end. Therefore, active fluttering devices using a double conical rope array together with less visible low-contrast netting in the cod end could help to reduce the bycatch of juvenile flatfish by weakening their optomotor response and actively driving fish to the side net panel.