A new design of prawn trawl developed by UK based Seafish could play an important role in conserving valuable stocks of haddock and whiting by reducing the unwanted by-catch of juvenile fish.
Over recent monthstrials have been conducted by Seafish with several experimental net designs in waters off the North-west of Scotland, the North-east of England and the Firth of Clyde. The arrangement was for the vessel working with the experimental net to be shadowed by another vessel using a standard prawn trawl to compare catches.
Seafish Senior Gear Technologist Ken Arkley said: 'The aim of study, funded by the Scottish Executive Partnership Programme, was to try and prevent the capture of juvenile fish in the first place rather than using technical measures to allow small fish to escape after they have been caught.'
Two prominent Scottish gear designers/manufacturers were invited to collaborate in the project - Scotnet UK Ltd of Fraserburgh and Stuart Nets from Eyemouth. Seafish researchers wanted to establish if the new designs could be made to work in a range of prawn fisheries under varying conditions and catch profiles.
