Escape Gaps as a Management Strategy for Reducing Bycatch in Net-Covered Traps for the Giant Mud CrabScylla serrata

Autor: Charles A. Gray, Daniel D. Johnson, Douglas Rotherham, William G. Macbeth
Rok vydání: 2013
Předmět:
Zdroj: North American Journal of Fisheries Management. 33:307-317
ISSN: 1548-8675
0275-5947
DOI: 10.1080/02755947.2012.760502
Popis: In response to experimental evidence and anecdotal concern about bycatch in the net-covered traps used increasingly by recreational and commercial fishers to target giant mud crabs Scylla serrata in New South Wales, Australia, experiments were done to examine the utility of escape gaps in reducing the bycatch of Yellowfin Bream Acanthopagrus australis (also known as Surf Bream) and undersized giant mud crabs. In each of two rivers, 10 different treatments comprising four different sizes of rectangular, horizontal escape gaps (85 × 45 mm, 85 × 55 mm, 95 × 45 mm, and 95 × 55 mm) and a control (no escape gaps) applied to both two-entrance and four-entrance traps were tested separately during the day and night. Traps fitted with escape gaps reduced the mean numbers of Yellowfin Bream and undersized giant mud crabs by 53–78% and 58–84%, respectively. Despite some inconsistent results, the effect of escape gaps was statistically significant in four of the seven analyses. There were, however, no signifi...
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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