Survival of red mullet (Mullus barbatus L., 1758) after escape from a trawl codend in the Aegean Sea

A Preliminary Study on the Survival of Brown Comber, <I>Serranus Hepatus</I> (Actinopterygii, Perciformes, Serranidae), Escaping from the Codend of a Bottom Trawl

“…In our study two different mesh shape cod-ends has been used Metin et al (2004) to estimate the relationship among water temperature, mesh shape and the survival of brown comber data. It has been reported that some fish species have a greater capacity to survive many factors (injury, captivity stress, predation, etc.)…”

“…The cod-end catch from each test tow was sorted to species and weighed. The experimental protocol for collecting and monitoring fish after escape from a trawl cod-end was similar to the method used by Metin et al (2004) (Fig. 1).…”

“…In the 2007 experiments, the fishing gear was a conventional bottom trawl with 600 meshes around the mouth and having a 40 mm nominal diamond mesh size (DM) cod-end (200 meshes around the circumference and 5 m stretched length) (Metin et al 2004). A tailored bottom trawl with 700 meshes around the fishing circle was used in 2008.…”

“…The observation period was set to 7 days, based on experience from earlier experiments (Metin et al 2004). For the next seven days, the cages were observed by divers three times a day; dead fish were collected and any surviving fish were fed.…”

“…Information on survival rates is only available for red mullet, Mullus barbatus (see Metin et al, 2004), annular seabream (Diplodus annularis), and axillary seabream, Pagellus acarne (see Tokaç et al, 2006). No information on survival rates for any other frequently discarded species has been reported so far.…”