Giant mud crab (Scylla serrata): relative efficiencies of common baited traps and impacts on discards

Published source details Butcher P.A., Leland J.C., Broadhurst M.K., Paterson B.D. & Mayer D.G. (2012) Giant mud crab (Scylla serrata): relative efficiencies of common baited traps and impacts on discards. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 69, 1511-1522.
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This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Modify fishing trap/pot configuration Action Link

Modify fishing trap/pot configuration

A replicated study in 2010 of mud and sand seabed in two estuaries in the Solitary Islands Marine Park in the Tasman Sea, Australia (Butcher et al. 2012) found that the number of unwanted fish caught in traps in a mud crab Scylla serrata fishery was lower in three of four trap designs. Across six days of fishing, unwanted fish catches (consisting mainly of yellowfin bream Acanthopagrus australis) in hoop nets (3 fish), rectangular pots (9 fish) and wire pots (5 fish) were lower than in round pots (287 fish). In addition, all trap designs retained similar sizes of commercial target mud crabs (8–19 cm). Between February and June 2010, five traps of each of four designs were deployed for three, six or 24 hours across six days of fishing. Designs were: steel-framed hoop traps (0.75 m diameter × 0.65 m, 150 mm mesh), rectangular collapsible plastic pots (0.88 × 0.55 × 0.20 m) with “V” shaped entrances, rectangular wire pots (0.90 × 0.60 × 0.30 m) with 50 x 0.75 mm wire mesh and two funnel entrances, and round, collapsible plastic pots (0.90 m diameter × 0.27 m) with four funnel entrances. All traps complied with existing regulations and were baited with sea mullet Mugil cephalus in a 10 × 10 mm mesh bag, and deployed 50–100 m apart.

(Summarised by: Leo Clarke)