Catching Efficiency of Non-containment Purse Trap Used for the Removal of Lionfish

Project no. 22272 · Status: Kapanmış · 2020

Summary

While lionfish invaded the Central American seas (Caribbean, Florida and Gulf of Mexico, Bahama, Belize), Pterois miles, entered the Turkish seas in 2014, is continuing its spread from east to west and towards northern part of the Aegean Sea rapidly. In Turkish seas, they are only localized in stony, rocky mesophotic reef habitats, increasing their pressure on local fish communities. Therefore, within the scope of the project, a non-containment curtain purse trap, which is an alternative fishing gear that can catch and remove lionfish from their habitat, has been designed and tested. The trap design has structural components that provide vertical operation via two-line harness ropes and low profile jaws (frames) that are positioned openly on the ground where they are placed. This trap, which only catches at the time of closing, is covered with enough mesh size to catch lionfish. Experiments were carried out in two phases to reveal both the opening performance of the traps and the catching efficiency. While the opening performance of the traps was found to be 81.6%, the most important factors affecting the opening negatively are that the trap does not descend vertically to the ground due to the current and the deflectors of the bag-trap are tangled on the stony ground. Experiments on the fishing efficiency of the traps were carried out on the coasts of Göcek and Marmaris between July 4 and August 31, 2022 with a total of 25 trap deployments. The traps left in the areas where the lionfish detected in the stony-rocky area did not leave such natural reef habitats and did not come to the trap area. The low abundance of lionfish and the fact that the environment consists of completely natural reef areas have negatively affected the recruit of this species in the traps. During the trap trials, thick nets (trammel nets for common dentex) were also left in these stony areas, and it was determined that these nets effectively caught lionfish. The entanglement and friction of the thick nets on natural reef elements such as stones, rocks, etc., where the lionfish is found, causes them to wear out rapidly. In addition, the possibility of ghost fishing with the remaining nets because of snagging is the disadvantageous aspect of the fishing gear. Keywords Lionfish Pterois miles, purse trap, opening performance, fishing efficiency.

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