Acronym: IAPF
Period: 2016 till 2019
Status: Completed
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| Institute | Top | - Instituut voor Landbouw-, Visserij- en Voedingsonderzoek (ILVO), more
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| Abstract | The overall aim of this project is to assess the longterm impact of the commercial application of pulse trawls in the North Sea flatfish fishery. In order to fulfil the overall aim, predictive models of the effect of electric pulses on organisms and on different ecosystem components will be developed and applied. The results will be integrated to assess the consequences of a transition in the flatfish fishery from using tickler chain beam trawls to pulse trawls on the bycatch of undersized fish (discards) and the adverse impact on the North Sea ecosystem.
These aims lead to the following research questions:
- Marine organisms: what is the response of selected marine organisms representing different groups of fish and invertebrate species (such as roundfish, flatfish, rays and sharks, bivalves, crustaceans, polychaetes) to the exposure by a range of pulse parameters representative for the commercial pulse trawls?
- Benthic ecosystem: what is the effect of pulse trawling on the functioning and biogeochemistry of benthic ecosystems (short term and longterm effects)?
- North Sea: what is the effect of pulse trawling on the fish stocks and the benthic ecosystem at the scale of the North Sea? Does a transition in the flatfish fishery from conventional beam trawling to pulse trawling contribute to a reduction in bycatch and adverse impact on the benthic ecosystem?
- Synthesis: what is the effect of the transition of the tickler chain beam trawl fleet to a pulse trawl fleet on the bycatch of undersized fish and on the adverse effects on the benthic ecosystem?
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