Rapport d’étude final du projet REJEMCELEC - Réduction des Rejets en Manche et mer Celtique par la Sélectivité des engins de pêche

In the context of the new European Common Fisheries Policy and in particular the Landing Obligation, the two Producers Organisations, COBRENORD and  OPN launched the REJEMCELEC project in partnership with IFREMER and net suppliers. It was set in a complementary way to the CELSELEC project. The main goal is to reduce whiting, haddock and pelagic discards for single bottom trawlers fleets targeting whiting, squids, cuttlefish and monkfish within the Western Channel. A specific fleet targeting hake and John Dory in Celtic Sea during summer (around Scilly Island) was also studied in order to reduce discards of small haddock, hake and boarfish. After a state of the art, an analysis of quantitative data and various workshops organized in partnership between fishermen, equipment manufacturers and scientists, five “selectivity cases” were identified. The selective devices were evaluated with regard to three criteria: reduction of unwanted catches (sizes and species), commercial losses and ergonomy of the device. Two of them gave the more interesting results considering these three criteria. The first one is a T90 panel (80 mm) on the top of the baitings and of the extension to avoid the undersized whiting and its first commercial grade and to keep cephalopods. The T90 panel was used by a vessel doing the bottom trawl metier in the Western Channel with a 80 mm codend. This device selects the whiting near the last size of the commercial category 40 (27-32 cm) without commercial loss. In addition, a reduction of undersized haddock, horse mackerel and mackerel is observed. Proof of its efficiency, the voluntary ship for this test continues to use this device. The second is a large 100mm T90 panel on almost all the top of the extension (13m long on the top of the straight part of the trawl) for fleets targeting hake and John Dory in Celtic Sea during summer with a 100 mm codend. This device was tested as an alternative to the mandatory 120 mm square mesh panel (only 3m long in comparison). The enlargement by four of the selective surface and the adjustment of the mesh to the targeted sizes of hake and haddock, allowed to decrease significantly the catches of small fishes (< 30 cm for haddock; < 36 cm for hake) and to increase the catches of good-sized individuals (> 35 cm for haddock; > 47 cm for hake). In addition, a slight decrease of the boarfish catches was observed. This approach would on one hand allow to save more young breeders, and on the other hand to take advantage of their growth by having a better capacity to capture them once bigger.