Catch rates of monkfish (Lophius spp.) by lost tangle nets in the Cantabrian Sea (northern Spain)

摘要

Commercial tangle nets used for capturing monkfish were employed in an experiment designed to study the fishing pattern by tangle nets that are lost at sea, a phenomenon commonly known as 'ghost' fishing. To simulate lost nets, 27 fleets of tangle nets were deployed on soft bottoms in the Cantabrian Sea shelf at depths between 117 and 135 m. Nets were recovered at intervals of 1-12 months and their catches recorded (composition, abundance, size, biomass, preservation state) in two trials, measuring seasonal changes in catch rates. A fleet of tangle nets was operated following commercial procedures next to the abandoned nets, providing simultaneous estimates of commercial catch rates.