Research Document - 2006/086

Updates concerning unaccounted fishing mortalities

By Fréchet, A., C. Savenkoff and J. Gauthier

Abstract

This paper covers a number of items related to unaccounted fishing mortalities:

1. Definition of the various categories of unaccounted fishing mortalities
2. A simulation of potential negative impacts of a change in mesh size
3. Three ghost fishing gear recovery programs in the Gulf of St. Lawrence
4. Fish survival experiments by gear type
5. By-catch in the shrimp fishery
6. Indirect evidence of unaccounted fishing mortality in ecosystem modelling

These issues are raised in order to increase the awareness to the existence, monitoring, and research on unaccounted fishing mortalities in the Quebec region. Of relevance to the impact of the use of mobile bottom fishing gear is the issue of post-selection (or escape) mortality. Recent research in this field showed that such mortalities can be significant for some groundfish species. A better understanding of post selection mortality could allow assessing the mortality on targeted and non targeted species for the various fishing gears used. Also, such knowledge may improve the accuracy of stock assessments. No field research on this topic is currently being undertaken.

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