Estimating discard survival of European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) in the UK commercial hook-and-line fishery

Lamb, Philip D., Randall, Peter, Weltersbach, Marc Simon, Andrews, Barnaby and Hyder, Kieran ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1428-5679 (2022) Estimating discard survival of European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) in the UK commercial hook-and-line fishery. Fisheries Management and Ecology, 29 (2). pp. 105-114. ISSN 0969-997X

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Abstract

Despite the implementation of technical management measures to facilitate stock recovery of European sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax (L.), the survival rate of discarded hook-and-line caught sea bass remains unknown. This makes the effectiveness of management measures that result in discarding difficult to assess. Therefore, a questionnaire was distributed to 421 UK-based commercial hook-and-line fishers (65 respondents) to characterise how sea bass are caught, handled and released. Responses suggested fishing was selective with a reported estimated mean discard rate of 12.9% (±3.3% SE). Low rates of foul and deep hooking, and short periods of air exposure were reported. Combined with data from a post-release mortality experiment using hook-and-line caught captive sea bass, a fleet-wide discard survival rate of 89.3% (±2.6% SE) was calculated for the UK commercial hook-and-line sea bass fishery. This survival rate suggests that technical management measures, for example minimum conservation reference sizes and catch limits, could be effective tools for managing the sea bass hook-and-line fishery.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding Information: This study was funded by the Department for Environment, Fisheries and Rural Affairs (Defra). MSW was supported by the European Commission’s Data Collection Framework (DCF). We would like to thank Kirsty Bradley for the illustrations created for the questionnaire and this manuscript. Furthermore, we would also like to thank the fishers that gave their time voluntarily to complete our questionnaire, without whom the study would not have been possible. © 2021 Crown copyright. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.
Uncontrolled Keywords: air exposure time,by-catch,deep hooking,discard mortality,fisheries questionnaire,landing obligation,ecology,aquatic science,sdg 14 - life below water ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2300/2303
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 25 Nov 2023 03:20
Last Modified: 25 Sep 2024 17:34
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/93773
DOI: 10.1111/fme.12518

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