Preliminary results on Northern hake from the “Spanish Discard Sampling Programme”

Abstract

The “Spanish Discard Sampling Programme” was started in 1988, however it has not had a continuous implementation in time. Results on Northern hake discard were obtained sampling the Spanish trawl fishery operating in the Northern hake distribution area. Discarding strategy varies between fleets, depending mainly on the target species of the fleet. Differences along the time series were probably due to market changes more than to the abundance of the species. In the years with a higher sampling quality, 2003 and 2004, the total level of Northern hake discard was estimated to be around 5% in weight and between 11-15% in number, respectively. Discards were compounded by ages from 0 to 3, mainly ages 1 and 2.