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Canadian Stock Assessment Secretariat
Research Document - 1999/26
Catch
composition of British Columbia shrimp trawls and preliminary estimates
of bycatch - with emphasis on eulachons.
By D.E. Hay, R. Harbo, K. Southy, J.R. Clarke, G. Parker and P.B. McCarter
Abstract
An observer program was
started in 1997 to determine the composition of catches in shrimp trawls
in British Columbia. The project was intended to sample catches
approximately according to the fishing effort, season, area and type of
gear. A total of 530 catches were examined: 356 from otter trawlers and
174 from beam trawlers. A specific concern about bycatch in shrimp trawl
catches is the catch of eulachons (Thaleichthys pacificus). There
are relatively few eulachon populations and many have declined sharply in
recent years. This paper provides a brief analysis of the relative bycatch
in shrimp trawls for all species and provides a preliminary estimate of
total bycatch of eulachons (tonnes) in different areas of the coast. The
estimates are preliminary because data on fishing effort (duration of
fishing time and total tows made) are not yet available. As an alternative
to data on effort, we relate the catch of eulachons to the catch of shrimp
(bootstrap estimates of the mean and 95% confidence limits) from the hailed
data on area-specific catches. The hailed data are known to be
approximations for some areas and may slightly under- or over-estimate
total shrimp catches (and therefore eulachon bycatch). We also use the
ratio of kg of eulachons to kg shrimp estimated from data collected from
the observer program. We used the hailed catches of shrimp from the
commercial fishery (estimated in kg for all main Statistical Areas) to
estimate the total eulachon catches. The highest bycatch was from otter
trawlers in the central coast where the ratio of eulachons to shrimp was
0.210. Therefore, for every 1000 kg of shrimp, 210 kg (95% CL = 173 to
251) of eulachons were caught. When adjusted by total (hailed) catch, an
estimated 90 tonnes of eulachons were taken in the central coastal areas.
Eulachon bycatch also was high in otter trawls off the west coast of
Vancouver Island, where an estimated 52 tonnes were taken. In general,
eulachon bycatch estimates were lower in other areas and negligible in the
Strait of Georgia. Also, beam trawls had lower eulachon catches, although
they took an estimated 22 tonnes of eulachons on the West Coast of
Vancouver Island. We conclude with a brief discussion of the biological
implications of these catch rates.
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