• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• 제14권2호
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• pp.130-137
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• 2011

Visual stimuli of nets, which affect fishing selectivity, vary by twine diameter, color, and material under different light conditions and visual geometries. In this study, two cylindrical model codends of two mesh sizes, 28 and 43 mm, were made of high-contrast, dark brown polyethylene (PE) netting twine and low contrast, light-blue polyamid (PA) monofilament twine. Each model codend was filled with juvenile seabream and set in the water channel of a light-blue circular tank under a flow speed 0.8 m/s for 30 min. Light conditions were set to relatively bright, dim, and dark. The resulting retention rates of juvenile seabream were 15-35% lower for the low-contrast codend with PA monofilament than for the high contrast PE twine netting under bright and dim light conditions, while no difference was observed under dark conditions. The effects of mesh size and netting contrast on the retention rate were dependent on the light level, while the retention rate due to netting contrast was independent of mesh size. Therefore, low-contrast nets in the codend could help to reduce juvenile bycatch by disturbing the orderly optomotor response.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• 제14권1호
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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.