Cornish Beam Trawl Diversification Project_IPF C071

Summary

With continued rising cost for fuel and no indications of prices falling back again the South West Beam trawl are looking for alternative fishing methods to target monkfish and megrims on their traditional fishing grounds. In Scottish waters many vessels target the same species using twin rig otter trawls. This project was set up to charter one of the Scottish vessels to fish the SW ground using twin rig to see if this would be a viable alternative for the SW fleet. The landings of the twin rig vessel were much less than local beam trawlers but much time was lost in exploring the beam trawl grounds for their suitability for towing with twin rig otter trawls. Despite this the catch rate for the time spent actually fishing indicates that twin rig could be a viable option in the SW. The catch profile of the twin rig is different to that of a beam trawler. Twin rig trawlers catch more higher swimming fish than beam trawlers. More knowledge of the stocks of these fish in the SW is needed to allow for otter trawling being financially viable. The discard rates recorded during the trials are not representative of discard rates for otter trawls in the area. The standard twin rig setup may need altering to better suit the SW fishing grounds and the fish species on them.

Publication Reference No.

SR628

Publication date

01 September 2009