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Effects of escape vents on the size selection of whelk (Rapana venosa) and Asian paddle crab (Charybdis japonica) in the small-scale pot fishery of the Yellow Sea, China

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Abstract

The small-scale whelk (Rapana venosa) and Asian paddle crab (Charybdis japonica) pot fishery are of great socio-economic importance to coastal communities of the Yellow Sea, China. However, the conventional pot with a regulated mesh size of 25 mm is unfavorable to the sustainability of these two species due to its poor selectivity. In this study, we intend to improve the size selectivity of pots by configuring escape vents. Three different escape vent sizes (diameter of 45 mm, 50 mm, and 55 mm) were tested using a catch comparison method. Our results demonstrated that escape vents significantly improved the size selectivity of pots for whelk and crab. The escape vent with a diameter of 55 mm released the maximum number of undersized whelk and meanwhile maintained the catch efficiency of individuals above the Market Reference Size (MRS; 45 mm) compared with the conventional (control) pots. The escape vent with a diameter of 50 mm significantly reduced the retention of undersized crab to 21% and increased the catch rates of individuals above the Minimum Landing Size (MLS; 50 mm) to 112%. Although hard to achieve “perfect selectivity” for morphologically different species in mixed fisheries, we recommend a compromise escape vent size of 52 mm in comprehensive consideration of resources’ sustainability and fishermen’s profits. The promising results of this study can provide feasibility and insight to develop management strategies for small-scale pot fishery.

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The research data in the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Rizhao Fisheries Group Company for providing assistance and the crew of “Lurihaiyu 77038” for their help and support during the sea trials. This study was supported by the Project of Marine and Fishery Technology Innovation of Shandong (No. 2017HYCX007).

Funding

This study was supported by the Project of Marine and Fishery Technology Innovation of Shandong (No. 2017HYCX007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fisheries College, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266003, Shandong, China

    Mengjie Yu, Changdong Liu, Yanli Tang, Liyou Zhang & Wei Zhao

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  1. Mengjie Yu
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  2. Changdong Liu
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  3. Yanli Tang
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  4. Liyou Zhang
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Contributions

MJY and YLT conceived the idea; MJY, LYZ, and WZ designed the sampling; MJY. and CDL. analyzed the data and interpreted the results. All authors carried out the writing of the manuscript and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yanli Tang.

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Yu, M., Liu, C., Tang, Y. et al. Effects of escape vents on the size selection of whelk (Rapana venosa) and Asian paddle crab (Charybdis japonica) in the small-scale pot fishery of the Yellow Sea, China. Hydrobiologia 849, 3101–3115 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-022-04899-5

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