Selectivity and Catch Performance of Commercial and Survey Gears

Moderators: Pingguo He*, Joseph DeAlteris, Chris Glass, and Russell Brown
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Date: Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Time: 8:00 am to 3:20 pm
Location: Egan 11-12

This symposium will focus on selectivity and catch performance of commercial gear used in marine fisheries and scientific survey gears used as stock assessment tools. Accordingly, there will be two sessions focusing on separate topics. 1) Size and Species Selectivity in Marine Commercial Fisheries: Selective fishing targeting certain sizes and/or species of fish has become an important fisheries management measure in reducing bycatch and discard in commercial fisheries worldwide. Understanding selective properties of fishing gears and their elements will provide means and methods for implementing gear-specific measures. The morning session will address experimental methods and analysis in selectivity studies and report selectivity of whole gear and gear elements such as grids and panels, in commercial fisheries. The session will also address implications of gear selectivity in fisheries management. AFS members with interest in fisheries management, commercial fisheries, gear technology, bycatch and discard reduction would find the session interesting. 2) The Performance of Scientific Sampling Gears Used in Fishery Resource Stock Assessment: Fishery resource stock assessments rely on data collected from fishery independent and dependent sources. The accuracy and precision of data collected in fishery independent surveys depends on our understanding of the performance of the sampling gears used to collect that data. Scientific survey gears are used to sample entire ecosystems or are targeted to specific resources in an ecosystem. The goal of a scientific sampling gear is take only representative sample of all the resources in an ecosystem or a specific resource in the ecosystem. Understanding the physical and catch performance of these sampling gears over a range of conditions is critical for quality data. In the last decade with the use of gear performance monitoring sensors developed for the commercial fishing industry, the fishery resource survey community has learned more about the physical performance of these sampling gears. Using underwater video of the interaction of the gear with fishery resources and through detailed catch comparison analyses we have also improved our understanding catch performance of these sampling gears. The purpose of the afternoon session is to provide a forum for gear researchers and stock assessment biologists to exchange information of the results of recent and ongoing investigations of commercial and sampling gear performances and to allow for a panel discussion of future research priorities.

Link to list of presentations in this symposium