AZTI technology centre intends to minimize the catches of unwanted fish.

AZTI seeks to help trawler fleet adapt to landing obligation

SPAIN
Thursday, March 21, 2019, 03:50 (GMT + 9)

The AZTI technology centre is to study the selectivity in bottom trawl fisheries in order to minimize the catches of unwanted fish.

Together with Ondarroa High Fishing Producers Organization (OPPAO) and the Fresh Fisheries Producers' Organization of the Port and Ría de Marín (OPROMAR), AZTI will work on a project that seeks to favour the adaptation of the activity of the trawl fleets from the Bay of Biscay and the Iberian Northwest to the new European regulation known as the "landing obligation".

The project, called MenDes 2, will be developed throughout 2019 and has the collaboration of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, through the Pleamar Program, co-financed by the EMFF.

With the complete implementation in 2019 of the European regulation known as "landing obligation" (LO) to eliminate discards of the species subject to total allowable catches (TACs), there are important limitations in the operation of the fishing fleet in what concerns the management of catches, which imply new challenges for fishing companies.

Given this situation, AZTI, OPPAO and OPROAMAR intend to provide technical instruments to the assembly companies associated with producer organizations so that they can adapt to the new LO regulation, ensuring their future sustainability.

Fishing vessels of the Ondarroa High Fishing Producers Organization (OPPAO)

The MenDes 2 project will start from the diagnosis of the problem of unwanted catch (before discarding) by type of trawling and species, to then design selective fishing devices with which to reduce or eliminate it, keeping the catch of marketable species in first sale. To this end, experimental fishing tests will be carried out with commercial trawling gear equipped with selective devices in order to quantify the selective effect in terms of reducing the unwanted catch of the limiting species and also the effect on the capture of the target species of the fishery.

Testing of selective devices in trawl nets (Photo: Azti)

The project also includes the socioeconomic evaluation of the effects of operational measures on fishing companies, aiming to offer the commercial fleet alternatives that minimize the economic impact of regulation.

As part of the initiative, a close relationship will be maintained with the fishing sector and society, developing different types of communication activities for an appropriate interaction among agents of the fishing sector, technologists and scientists, including mixed workshops and technology committees. It is also planned to develop different activities to release the project aimed at different audiences.

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