Use Of A Large Mesh Belly Panel To Reduce Winter Flounder Bycatch

The purpose of this project was to evaluate a method to reduce winter flounder bycatch in the small mesh trawl fishery. The net modification tested was a large mesh belly panel in the 1^st belly of the net. The experimental large mesh belly panel has proven to be functionally effective in significantly reducing the quantity of winter flounder bycatch as well as demersal species. Winter flounder showed a significant effect between the control and treatment tows and the overall percent reduction in winter flounder catch from the large mesh belly panel treatment was 87.9%. When the demersal species were pooled, we found a highly significant difference between the control and treatment that yielded an 83.3% reduction in catch by the large mesh belly panel treatment. The data show that there was no significant difference in longfin squid catches between the control and experimental nets.  In summary, results indicate that the large mesh panel is capable of effectively reducing winter flounder bycatch and the bycatch of other demersal species while retaining levels of longfin squid comparative to the control net.