Investigations on Hard Bycatch Reduction Devices for Trawling

Bycatch Reduction Devices (BRDs) are specific devices that can be incorporated in a fishing gear in order to exclude or reduce non targeted and unwanted catch in a fishing system and thereby making it more selective. The main objective of the study was to design, development and comparative evaluation of hard bycatch reduction devices (BRDs made out of metallic rods) appropriate for small scale mechanised sector and also to conduct a characterisation study of trawl catch and existing trawling systems operated off Cochin in India. In a review 8 different classes of hard BRDs used world wide were identified and the prevailing trends of trawlers and trawl nets were assessed by the characterisation studies. In bycatch analysis about 282 marine species were encountered in the trawl nets and the average bycatch in Cochin waters was about 87%. Experiments were conducted using variations of hard BRDs showed promising performance in terms of bycatch exclusion and lowest target catch loss.