01 Oct Blinded By the Light—Study Looks at Trawler Light Levels
Posted at 10:44h in Newsletter
Do Pacific hake and Chinook salmon like the light? Researchers took a look at illuminated and non-illuminated trawlers to see the by-catch of hake and salmon. They used a Wildlife Computers TDR-MK9 archival tag to measure the light level and temperature. The study found that lighted trawls caught less salmon and hake than non-illuminated trawls. While it wasn’t a significant reduction, the study did show that altering the light level on the “flapper” style net could significantly alter the by-catch rate.