Relationship between trawl selectivity and fish body size in a simulated population

Abstract

Trawl is a main fishing gear in Chinese fishery, capturing large fish and letting small ones at large. However, long-term use of trawl would result in changes of phenotypic traits of the fish stocks, such as smaller size-at-age and earlier age-at-maturation. In this study, we simulated a fish population with size characteristics of trawl fishing and the population produces one generation of offspring and lives for one year, used trawl to exploit the simulated fish population, and captured individuals by body size. We evaluated the impact of the changes on selectivity parameters, such as selective range and the length at 50% retention. Under fishing pressure, we specified the selectivity parameters, and determined that smaller selection rates and greater length at 50% retention were associated with an increased tendency towards miniaturization.