Discards in bottom-trawl fishery in the western Black Sea (Turkey)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to estimate the discards of target and non-target species from bottom trawlers (rhombic and 40mm cod end mesh size nets) in the Black Sea. On-board sampling was conducted on the southwestern coasts of the Black Sea in the fishing ports of Rumelifeneri and Igneada for a total of 66 hauls on two commercial bottom trawlers from October 2012 to April 2013 and from October 2013 to April 2014. A total of 32 species were captured, including 25 species of fish, three crustacea, two echinodermata and two mollusca. Mullus barbatus and Merlangius merlangus euxinus were the target species, whereas 24 species were always discarded. Scophthalmus maximus and Pomatomus saltatrix were always retained. The two regions were similar in terms of catch and discard compositions, CPUE, DPUE and discard ratio. Discarding is important in the Black Sea commercial bottom trawl fishery and accounts for as much as 31.4% of the total bottom trawl catch. The results showed that the discard rates varied among species, depths (p=.04) and seasons (p=.0001). Finally, it was concluded that in the western Black Sea, when the impacts of depth and season are considered, that the discard quantity can be reduced.