초록
Fishing pots are one of the important fishing gears in our coastal and offshore fisheries. In terms of a sustainable use of marine resources, there are concerns about the ghost fishing by lost pots. It is reported that 10 to 70% of the pots are abandoned or lost annually. This study is to compare the catching efficiency of drum type whelk pots that are made of biodegradable nets to those made of the ordinary nets, in the eastern coast of Korea. Five types of drum pots were used with combination of biodegradable nets and ordinary (PA, PE) nets applied to the main and funnel parts of the pots: pots with biodegradable nets (Bio+Bio); pots with PE net (PE+PE); pots with body and funnel made of biodegradable nets and PE nets respectively (Bio+PE); pots with body and funnel made of PE nets and PA nets respectively (PE+PA); pots with body and funnel made of PE nets and biodegradable net respectively (PE+Bio). Field experiments were conducted from June $18^{th}$, 2015 to August $7^{th}$, 2015 using a commercial fishing vessel in the Uljin waters on the eastern coast of Korea. Two fleets of pots with one hundred in each, 20 pots of each type, were casted for 8 to 15 days to analyze their catching efficiency. The catch of target species, whelks, was 202,563.0 g with catch rate of 38.7% of the total catch, while the bycatch was 320,709.7 g with the rate of 61.3% of the total catch. The catch of whelks was the highest in the Bio+PE pots (46,020.3 g), followed by the Bio+Bio pots (42,027.5 g), the PE+Bio pots (41,849.9 g) and the lowest being PE+PE pots (38,054.2 g). Compared to the conventional pots, the pots with biodegradable nets on the body or entrance part had slightly higher catch rate for both the target species and the bycatch. The PE+PE had the lowest catch rate. There is no significant difference in catch between the pots with biodegradable nets and the ordinary nets for the target species such as Buccinum opisthoplectum, Neptunea eulimata, Buccinum striatissimum. Consequently, using biodegradable nets for the conventional whelk pots can reduce ghost fishing by lost gears while keeping the performance of the pots.
