South West Separator Trawl Trials aboard MFV Our Ocean Harvester

Summary

A series of four commercial voyages have been monitored onboard the Newlyn based trawler MFV Our Ocean Harvester in an attempt to evaluate the performance of a demersal trawl fitted with a Seafish designed horizontal separator panel in a highly mixed species fishery. Unfortunately due to the randomness of the voyages, seasonably many of the species of interest such as John Dory, mullet, pollack, hake and squid, were in short supply. However, good separation levels were perceived on cod, haddock, whiting and flatfish generally which did support our previous work in the North Sea. A few anomalies were highlighted with these species, the scientific reasons for which are extremely difficult to analyse with any confidence since these trials were not in any way scientifically controlled. Some evidence appears to exist upon the selectivity of the gadoid (white fish) species by the presence of flatfish in the lower codend. The phenomenon needs to be examined more thoroughly via controlled experiments and possible introduction of the Seafish underwater camera.

Publication Reference No.

SR494

Publication date

01 May 1996