Deep Species Results from Spanish Discard Sampling Programme

Abstract

Estimations of deep species discards from three Spanish bottom otter trawl m etiers operating in the Northeast Atlantic ICES V I, V II, V IIIc and North IXa are presented in this paper. Information has been ob- tained from the `Spanish Discard Sampling Programme' carried out by the IEO. Trip was the sampling unit, being raised to eet level using sh- ing e ort as auxiliary variable. Discard weigth estimates from time series of seven years (2003-2009) is presented for twelve species. Further, dis- card length distributions are presented for those species that have been observed whitin discarded fraction for more than three years. Estimates show high between-years variation in discard amounts, exceeding 35% CV in almost all cases. Results show that the largest amounts of discards of most of the species occur at depths less than 600m. Low market value is the main factor that forces the eet to discard most of deep species.