Artificial light improves size selection for northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) in trawls

Abstract

Size selection in the northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) trawl fisheries is a widely studied topic. While the focus has largely been on codend and grid selectivity, studies have shown the importance of other design changes and the application of artificial light to evoke behavioural responses. LED lights of three different colours — green (∼470–580 nm), white (∼425–750 nm) and red (∼580–670 nm) — were mounted in the belly section of a shrimp trawl to investigate their influence on the overall selectivity of the trawl. The study was conducted using a twin-trawl setup, one with light and the other without light. For catch-comparison analysis, a polynomial regression with random effects was applied. The number of valid hauls with green, white and red lights were eleven, eight, and nine, respectively. All lights tested significantly affected the length-dependent retention of shrimp. Green light had the greatest effect, red the least. Significant loss was observed for shrimp below 17.5 mm carapace length (CL) for green light, 19.5 mm CL for white and 20.8 mm CL for red light.