Avoiding the by-catch of boarfish in pelagic trawling

The Dutch pelagic freezer trawler group (Redersvereniging voor de Zeevisserij, RVZ) wishes to avoid the by-catch of non-target species such as boarfish (Capros aper L.) as much as possible. This species is unsuitable for human consumption, and when present in the fishing gear with other species they will reduce product quality. A project was set-up in the VIP-programme. The goal of this project was to reduce the by-catch of boarfish as much as possible by early recognition of this species in echograms and technical trawl adaptions. This report focuses on the results of the acoustic work.