Bycatch and discards of the whelk trap in the Uljin waters, East Sea
Experiment was set up to analyze bycatch and discards situation including snow crap Chionoecetes opilio of whelk trap. Four types of trap were used: drum type trap with PE net; drum type trap with PBS net; cylinder type trap with PE net; and cylinder type net with PBS net. Three funnels were attached in drum type trap and two funnels were used in cylinder type trap. A fleet of traps was consisted with one hundred traps. 25 traps of each type were set on a line in repeated sequence. Field experiments were conducted with 6 fishing operations in the Uljin waters, East Sea in July 2014. Catch of target whelks were 173,261 g and catch rate was 48.7% of total catch, while bycatch were 182,571 g, 51.3% of tatal catch. The catch rate of bycatch was 2.6% higher than that of target catch. Bycatch weight of snow crap was the highest as 142,987 g and formed about 40.2% of total catch, followed giant octopus, Enteroctopus dofleini, 31,762 g (8.9%). Bycatch rate of cylinder type trap was 2.3 times higher than that of drum type trap. Discard rate (discard/(discard+landing)) was 43.6%. Discard rate was the highest at cylinder type trap with PBS net as 63.1%, followed cylinder type trap with PE net as 47.9%, drum type trap with PE net as 33.4%, the lowest at drum type trap with PBS net as 22.1%.