Effect of Extension Piece Design on Catch Patterns in a Mediterranean Bottom Trawl Fishery

The catch composition of bottom trawls is commonly refined and improved through changes in codend design. Measures like reducing the number meshes circumference or turning diamond netting by 90 degrees are well known to improve size selectivity fish species with rounded cross-sectional shape. Based on this we speculated whether same measures, if applied other parts a trawl, would provide similar benefits as codend. Therefore, experiments were carried out deploying these trawl extension piece Mediterranean fishery. However, for European hake monkfish, results showed no indication pattern compared standard trawl. Contrary, red mullet, one most important fishery, jeopardized selection obtained piece. lesson learnt from study was that design work do not necessarily In fact, they can even have negative effects.