Acronym NEAT
Category
Fisheries
Title Net Escapement of Antarctic krill in Trawls Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator Ludvig Ahm Krag Coordinator email lak@aqua.dtu.dk
Coordinator institution
IMR - Institute of Marine Research (Norway)
Institutions involved
IMR - Institute of Marine Research (Norway) ,
Start year 2012 End year 2014 Funding (€) € 141,063 Website https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/projects/net-escapement-of-antarctic-krill-in-trawls-neat-38919 Summary The pelagic trawlers involved in the Antarctic krill harvest apply different trawl systems and fishing gear. There are many unknown parameters on which to estimate the catch efficiency of the different trawls that are used. A study performed on Soviet krill trawls indicates that only 10-20% of the krill that enter the trawl opening are landed onboard the vessel and a German study indicates a mortality rate of krill passing through the net of 5-35%. Increased knowledge on estimates on mortality rates will have profound importance for a rational management of the Antarctic krill fishery and CCAMLR (Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) strongly recommends members that are fishing for krill to investigate the effects of different fishing gear on escape mortality. During recent years, Norway has become the nation with the largest landings of Antarctic krill. The Norwegian catch in 2010 was 120,000 tons of a total international catch of 211,000 tons of krill. We will perform a study including morphology based mathematical modelling (FISHSELECT) of different krill sex and maturity groups, from data acquired through AKES (Antarctic Krill and Ecosystem Studies). The FISHSELECT method has previously been used to describe and predict size selection of fish and crustaceans. The methodology will be used to describe and predict size selection of krill in trawl gear. The model will be used to predict basic selective characteristics of different netting designs. The results from these calculations will be used to quantify the theoretic catch efficiency and escape mortality in different nets and to construct a net configuration with optimal mesh size and shape in order to minimize escape mortality. Finally, will we construct design guides which describe the basis selective properties for krill in different mesh shapes and sizes.
Keywords
Krill;
Fishing technology;
Trawling;
Environmental impact;
Shellfish;
Gear selectivity;
Crustacean;
Fishing mortality;
Marine Region
42
Barents Sea (27.I)
1
Marine Region Map
