FISHING DISCARDS FROM TRAWLING IN THE GULF OF CADIZ. ANALYSIS AND CHARACTERIZATION

Resumen

Fishing is one of the most important human activities carried out in the oceans. In 2018, of the 84 million tons of catches, 10% were discards (FAO, 2020). Discards are those specimens of different species that are returned to the sea, dead or alive, due to reasons such as not being target species or not meeting the legal size (Kelleher, 2008; Despoti et al., 2021). The objective of this work was to characterize the species discarded in the trawl fisheries of the Gulf of Cadiz, as well as, to make proposals for a better management of them. Sampling was carried out within the framework of the ECOFISH, ECOFISH 2 and ECOFISH + projects, and shipments were made with the fleet of Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz) maintaining its way of fishing, from 2019 to 2021, except for the closed periods (mid-September to the end of October) for the trawl modality in the Gulf of Cádiz. To this end, 11 kg of discards were processed and identified at random for each set made, at depths ranging from 15 to 548 m. The main fishes species discarded were anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), scaldfish (Arnoglossus spp.), sardine (Sardina pilchardus) and atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus) as well as invertebrates: arrow shrimp (Plesionika heterocarpus), sea grapes (Molgula sp.), spottail mantis shrimp (Squilla mantis) and sand sea star (Astropecten irregularis). These species are discarded forvarious reasons, either because of the low prices that some of them fetch or the lack of value of others. The involvement of the different agents involved in fisheries is very necessary to ensure effective management and reduction of discards, as well as the correct implementation of the new Common Fisheries Policy.