NPRB 1117 Cooperative research to develop new trawl footrope designs to reduce mortality of southern Tanner and snow crabs (Chionoecetes bairdi and C. opilio) incidental to Bering Sea bottom trawl fisheries

Description

Alaska’s Bering Sea is home to some of the world’s most productive groundfish and crab stocks and the fisheries that depend on them. Their spatial overlap creates problems when bottom trawls affect crabs in their paths, either through capture and discard or damage to crabs that remain on the seafloor. We worked with Bering Sea bottom trawlers to develop and test changes to trawl footropes to minimize crab mortality, by reducing damage to crabs that are not caught, and maintaining low crab capture rates. A previous NPRB project (0711) showed that crab mortality from herding cables ahead of trawls could be greatly reduced with simple modifications to raise them above the seafloor. This project did the same for trawl footropes, the part of the trawl located between the leading edge of the trawl net and the seafloor. Such gear changes allow crab mortality to be reduced without restricting trawling to the few areas of the Bering Sea without crabs.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
0 http://projects.nprb.org/#metadata/d3d4915c-786d-42d0-9fcf-ffef4a24c708/project
33 NOAA Data Management Plan for this record on InPort. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inportserve/waf/noaa/nmfs/afsc/dmp/pdf/28425.pdf
0 View the complete metadata record on InPort for more information about this dataset. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/28425
0 The information provided on this page seeks to define how the GCMD Keywords are structured, used and accessed. It also provides information on how users can participate in the further development of the keywords. https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/find-data/idn/gcmd-keywords
0 http://projects.nprb.org/#metadata/d3d4915c-786d-42d0-9fcf-ffef4a24c708/project
0 View the complete metadata record on InPort for more information about this dataset. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/28425
0 Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). 2025. GCMD Keywords, Version 22. Greenbelt, MD: Earth Science Data and Information System, Earth Science Projects Division, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). URL (GCMD Keyword Forum Page): https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD+Keywords https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD%2BKeywords
33 NOAA Data Management Plan for this record on InPort. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inportserve/waf/noaa/nmfs/afsc/dmp/pdf/28425.pdf

Tags

  • alaska fisheries science center
  • noaa
  • mortality
  • tanner crab
  • afsc/race/mace: reducing trawl impacts to benthic habitat and invertebrates
  • u.s. department of commerce
  • national marine fisheries service
  • doc/noaa/nmfs/afsc
  • snow crab
  • trawl

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