Pilot 1-4 - Test fishing

Four Pilots will showcase suitable gears that may efficiently and selectively target Round Goby and provide recommendations for a more cost-efficient fishery corresponding with national fishing legislation.

Pilot owner: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

Participating partners: BIOR, Port of Władysławowo, GMU, LIFE, FSK-PO, MCS

Method:

The four pilots will take place Sweden, Denmark Poland and Latvia where newly designed gears also will be tested and compared to current gears. With traditional gillnet fisheries in the Baltic being subjected to increasing seal depredation, development will focus on passive gear types like pots and trap, which will be modified to reduce bycatch of non-target species such as eel and protect local seal populations. Many small-scale fisheries and fishermen rely on several target species in their fishery. Therefore, it is important to allow a gear targeting Round Goby also to be a used for other commercial species. Several passive gears are live catching and will allow for release of non-target species either through selection panels or at collection. However, to allow for evaluation of gear catchability, bycatch species and ratios will have to be evaluated. This will be done using non-lethal methods as underwater video cameras. Another method is bycatch collection-bags that may be connected to the selection panel that allows release after species composition analysis.

The main fishing season for Round Goby is spring between April and early June, when abundance is the highest. The fishers will have 20 collection days each with an optimal soak time of the gear of 2-3 days. Fishers will also compare the catch efficiency of the newly developed gear with existing gear and collect data. At least one project partner will accompany the fishers to oversee the test fishing.

Progress:

In spring 2024, project partners SLU and BIOR completed an initial round of test fishing in the coastal waters outside Ronneby, Sweden and Liepaja, Latvia. In Sweden, SLU cooperated with local fisher Bengt to catch Round Goby with modified fyke nets, traditionally used to catch eel. These nets now include escape hatches to minimize bycatch. They also tested the Latvian trap-nets especially designed to catch Round Goby. In Latvia, commercial fishing of Round Goby has been going on for some time, using gill nets, trap-nets and fykes. To compare the different fishing gear, Latvia and Sweden exchanged gear and cooperated during the test fishing phase. Read more here:

In September 2024, Our Polish partners Gdynia Maritime University and Port of Władysławowo organized the first round of test fishing with local fishermen on the southern shores of the Baltic Sea. The fishermen used two boats and had three full days of fishing in two areas: Puck Bay and around Port Władysławowo and Chłapowo areas. For each day, the two boats caught around 1-3 kg of Round Goby each day using fyke and trap nets.

In spring 2025, more full-scale fishing trials are planned in Denmark, Poland and Sweden.

Programme Manual Online

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