A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE SURVIVAL OF BROWN COMBER, SERRANUS HEPATUS (ACTINOPTERYGII, PERCIFORMES, SERRANIDAE), ESCAPING FROM THE CODEND OF A BOTTOM TRAWL

Abstract

Background. Poor selectivity of trawl cod-ends has been a major problem of the modern-day fisheries, contributing to destruction of non-target organisms. It is expected that increased trawl selectivity can reduce bycatch and discards. This would only be true if significant numbers of the escaping fishes survive. The chances of survival of many species after escaping the trawl cod-end are still poorly known. This study was aimed at providing mortality estimates of brown comber, Serranus hepatus, escaping from two different demersal trawl cod-ends (40 mm diamond and square) in the Aegean Sea. We also looked at possible seasonal variation in the survival rate of escaped brown comber (diamond mesh).