Research on effective cod stock recovery measures (RECOVERY) (4304)

The cod stock in some European waters is at critical levels. The project aimed at developing more selective gears for the three most relevant fisheries that take cod with the highest number of discards and total catches. The otter trawl (and seine) fishery has the highest catches of cod and greatest level of discard of all fisheries, followed by the beam trawl fishery. The Nephrops fishery has a high discard rate and this is a fishery which the fleet often will switch to when fisheries for fish species are restricted.

The main objective was to develop novel species-selective gear prototypes for the three prominent mixed-species demersal trawl fisheries in the North and Irish Sea, where cod is an important catch component. The development of novel species selective fishing gears is intended to reduce the fishing mortality rate on cod of all ages/sizes, to enhance the recovery of cod stock, and at the same time permit the continued exploitation of other species taken in the same fisheries as cod.

The project was coordinated by DTU Aqua.

Research area: Fisheries Technology