Gear performance and catch process of a commercial Danish anchor seine

Abstract

The Danish anchor seine is an efficient type of active fishing gear used globally. Knowledge of the gear and its operational performance is limited, but needed to ensure efficient fishing and appropriate management. During this study, a combination of GPS loggers, depth loggers, and cameras, were utilized to collect quantitative information about the geometry of the seine net and seine ropes during all stages of the fishing process, and to identify when fish enter the seine net. Measurements of the horizontal and vertical openings of the seine net indicated that gear geometry changed continuously during the fishing process. Underwater recordings from the net revealed that the majority of fish entered the seine net within the last quarter of the fishing period, and that fishermen are able to control the timing of increasing the retrieval speed to prevent losing fish late in the fishing process. Underwater recordings of the seine rope provided qualitative results indicating that interactions with the sea bed are relatively minor in nature.