Mediterranean demersal fisheries have experienced an ongoing decline in
catches over the past 20 years as a result of excessive increases in effort
caused both by growth in trawler engine power and by rapid technological
advances in fish finding and fishing technology. This has led to an
overexploitation of these resources. An increasing share of the catches
consists of immature individuals. This study was undertaken to test a
sorting grid with a bar spacing of 20 mm as a means of excluding juveniles
in the commercial hake (Merluccius merluccius) fishery in the Catalan Sea, western Mediterranean.
The grid was placed in the extension section of the gear 5 m in front of a
cod-end. Divided cod-end design was used to collect the escapees and target
species. The mean selection length (L50) of the ten hauls was 14.2 ± 0.7 cm SE, with a selection range of 7.3 cm ± 0.4 SE. The
biomass of hake under L50 that escaped through the grid represented
50.1% ± 6.7 SE of the total hake biomass. These results are
promising and indicate that a sorting grid can be used in excluding young
hake. This was a first step toward implementation of sorting grids in
commercial trawl gears as means of avoiding unwanted catches of small
individuals in the hake fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea. Further trials
are required to improve the sorting efficiency of the grid.