Anglerfish discard estimates and patterns in Spanish Northeast Atlantic trawl fisheries

Estimates of Spanish bottom trawl discards of anglerfish Lophius budegassa and Lophius piscatorius in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean are presented. Both species are commercially valuable in ICES Subareas VI and VII, and Divisions VIIIc and IXa. Information was obtained from observers on board during d...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Díaz-Conde, María Paz, Santos-Blanco, Juan, Velasco, Francisco, Serrano López, Alberto, Pérez-Contreras, María Nélida
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2008
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/328489
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/328489
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Anglerfish
Pesquerías
Centro Oceanográfico de Vigo
Bottom otter trawl
Discards
Northeast Atlantic
Descripción
Sumario:Estimates of Spanish bottom trawl discards of anglerfish Lophius budegassa and Lophius piscatorius in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean are presented. Both species are commercially valuable in ICES Subareas VI and VII, and Divisions VIIIc and IXa. Information was obtained from observers on board during discard-monitoring programmes. Raising by effort, rather than by landings and target species, was used to determine the total annual discards by weight and number, the discard percentage, and the discard length distribution by stock throughout the dataseries. By weight and number, discards varied interannually, ranging from 4 to 600 t (∼28 000–7 000 000 fish) in northern stocks of anglerfish, and from 1 to 100 t (∼20 000–400 000 fish) in southern stocks. The discard percentage for both species and northern and southern stocks therefore ranged between 2 and 76% by number. Length distributions of the discarded anglerfish show that most were juveniles, although the pattern differed in years with high or with low rates of discarding. The number of juveniles caught apparently increased in most areas after 2000. Correlations between the quantities discarded and recruitment indices from French and Irish trawl surveys were found for northern stocks and with Spanish trawl survey indices for southern stocks.