NEW APP TO REDUCE SPURDOG BYCATCH

A new smartphone app that’s being trialled by Cornish fishers in the Celtic Sea is seeking to reduce bycatch of spurdog.

The app, developed by Applied Satellite Technology Ltd (AST) as part of the Smartfish H2020 international research project, represents the next phase in the innovative “Spurdog Bycatch Management Programme,” a collaboration between scientists and the fishing industry which uses scientifically-robust data collected by fishers on spurdog bycatch to map out the distribution of this highly migratory, endangered species. As well as reporting their own incidents of spurdog bycatch, the updated app provides real-time feedback to skippers, so they can avoid areas where there is likely to be a high concentration of the species.

Spurdog are demersal, shoaling sharks that belong to the dogfish family. Unlike other commercially valuable species, very little is known about the size and distribution of spurdog populations. Initially declared a critically endangered species, a precautionary management measure adopted in 2010 placed a zero Total Allowable Catch (TAC) on spurdog for all EU-registered vessels operating in EU waters. Unable to land spurdog bycatch, it gave way to the highly wasteful practice of dead discarding.

An industry-led research programme commissioned by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in 2016 and run by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) sought to experiment with giving Cornish gillnetters a low dead spurdog bycatch quota. The initial concept was that fishers would submit a report every 24 hours detailing their interactions with spurdog bycatch, providing the retained and discarded weight of the catch and tagging it to an ICES geolocation. The Cornish Fish Producers’ Organisation (CFPO) collates this data and Cefas produces a map with a traffic light system representing low to high interactions with spurdog, so that skippers can make an informed decision on where to fish to avoid spurdog interaction.

Source: New app to shed light on spurdog populations and reduce bycatch – Cefas (Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science)