SINTEF Nord, Tromsø, Norway.
SINTEF Ocean, Trondheim, Norway.
PLoS One. 2019 Jul 18;14(7):e0219858. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219858. eCollection 2019.
The snow crab (Chioneocetes opilio) fishery in the Barents Sea is carried out by large offshore vessels, as the fishing grounds are located far from shore and the gear must be transported back and forth over long distances. Therefore, fishers use stackable conical pots that allow large numbers of pots to be carried on deck for each trip. One of the drawbacks of using stackable pots is that the entrance is at the vertex of the conical pot, which fishers claim does not provide the desired fishing efficiency. Thus, the goal of this study was to determine whether a different pot design would improve the catch efficiency of snow crabs. We investigated the efficiency of a new type of pot called the moon pot, which provides continuous increased bait odour intensity as snow crabs make their way towards the entrance of the pot. This alteration was expected to increase catch efficiency compared to that of the conical pots used by the fleet today. However, experimental fishing results showed that the modified pots had significantly lower catch efficiency than the standard conical pots, as only ~66% of the number of crabs caught by the conical pots were caught in the moon pots. The main reason for this reduced catch efficiency likely was the initial steepness of the moon pot, which may have made it difficult for crabs to reach the pot entrance. These results demonstrated that pot design can dramatically affect catch efficiency of snow crabs.
在巴伦支海，雪蟹（Chioneocetes opilio）渔业由大型近海船只进行，因为捕捞区距离海岸很远，渔具必须长途往返运输。因此，渔民使用可堆叠的锥形锅，每次航行可以在甲板上携带大量的锅。使用可堆叠锅的一个缺点是，入口位于锥形锅的顶点，渔民们认为这不能提供理想的捕鱼效率。因此，本研究的目的是确定不同的锅设计是否会提高雪蟹的捕捞效率。我们研究了一种新型锅——月亮锅的效率，这种锅为雪蟹向锅入口移动时提供持续增加的诱饵气味强度。与船队目前使用的锥形锅相比，这种改变预计会提高捕捞效率。然而，实验性捕鱼结果表明，改良锅的捕捞效率明显低于标准锥形锅，因为只有约 66%的锥形锅捕获的螃蟹被月亮锅捕获。这种捕捞效率降低的主要原因可能是月亮锅最初的陡峭程度，这可能使螃蟹难以到达锅入口。这些结果表明，锅的设计会极大地影响雪蟹的捕捞效率。
