Search The Database

This study tests the impact of skids placed on scallop dredges in various habitats to reduce seabed impact; skids raise the scallop collecting bag 10-11cm off the seabed. The modified skid dredge caught more marketable scallops per unit area, but also retained more bycatch overall and more undersize scallops. Results were habitat specific.

This study analyzes the impacts of annual temporal fishing closures of gillnet fisheries in Lake Saimaa, Finland on bycatch/recovery of the Saimaa ringed seal population from 1991-2021. Results show that  fishing was responsible for 26% of observed mortality and 90% of that was from gillnet entanglement, but most bycatch mortalities are likely not observed and therefore underestimated. Longer temporal coverage of annual closures would improve juvenile survival, but the coverage may be regionally adequate.