Factory trawler Emeraude has switched the mesh size in the codends of its gear for a size well in excess of the minimum required, seeking to minimise catches of small fish and to maximise catch quality.
Operated by Compagnie des Pêches Saint-Malo and Euronor, the French-flagged Emeraude fishes in the Barents Sea, processing cod, haddock and saithe on board in its high-tech factory deck. In these waters the minimum mesh size is 130mm.
‘I’m now switching to a codend with 145mm mesh size to try to avoid the smallest fish. We are required to use sorting grids when fishing for whitefish in the Barents Sea to separate small fish from the trawl before they go back into the codend, but this does not always prevent some small fish from ending up on board. I also hope to lose some by-catch with larger meshes in the codends, but it remains to be seen how that will turn out,’ said Emeraude’s skipper Björn Valur Gíslason.
‘We are looking for suitable processing fish, in whch size and quality are the most important. In the current business landscape with quotas have reduced, it’s more important than ever to focus on catches that are most suitable for production. Usually, the most suitable processing fish can be found in the first quarter of the year when we are trawling in the Norwegian EEZ. The fish usually get smaller around the Svalbard area later in the year, although this can vary. We try to focus on finishing our cod quota in the Norwegian EEZ before the end of summer and maximising its value before heading north to the Svalbard zone.’
As well as going to a larger mesh size, Emeraude is also using triple codends, reducing the pressure on the fish during hauling.
‘So instead of hauling on board a ten-tonne haul with all the pressure is on a single codend, we spread these ten tonnes into three bags with approximately three tonnes in each. This results in significantly decreased pressure on the fish. Kirkella started with these codends a few years ago, and we followed suit,’ Björn Valur Gíslason said.
