Evaluation of a shrimp trawl structuraly modified

Abstract

The impacts due the shrimp trawl have been generating discussions over the last decades. Seeking to cooperate with efforts to bycatch reductions from bottom trawl, this paper proposes to restrict the vertical open mouth of trawls, seeking to reduce the fish catches in the water column. Additionally, we evaluated a device to juvenile teleost exclusion. Aware of the impacts generated by the fuel, this work also evaluated the drag resistance of different net panels as indicative of fuel consumption. To evaluate the proposed, 18 hauls were realized between December 2014 to February 2015. Those hauls were organized into three experimental fishing campaigns in Pinheira Beach (south Brazilian region). During the fields campaigns we used two trawl with four panels (CT í  with escape window; ST í  without escape window) and a control trawl with two main panels (RN). The RN trawl got the highest shrimp catches (CA) and bycatch (FA). On the other hand, the modified trawls showed the highest CA proportion in relation RN. The net panels drag suggests that the modified trawls provide a reduction in fuel consumption because of its lower resistance. The results showed that the structural changes contribute to bycatch reduction usual in bottom trawls.