16 January, Strasbourg

In recent years, the Dutch fisheries sector has invested a great deal in pulse fishing. An innovative technique with many advantages. The coming weeks, we will explain these benefits in four news items. Today you can read about the advantages for the seabed.

Pulse Fishing has low impact on the seabed.

20% reduction of soil disturbance by low seabed penetration and low fishing speed.

Scientific Evidence:

Pulse fishing and its effects on the marine ecosystem and fisheries An update of the scientific knowledge.

Authors: Adriaan Rijnsdorp, Dick de Haan, Sarah Smith, Wouter Jan Strietman Wageningen University & Research Report C117/16

Page 23: 6.5.2 Pulse trawl effects on the benthos

The impact of a bottom trawl on the benthos depends on the footprint of the gear used and the sensitivity of the benthic community. The great unknown in the assessment of the impact of pulse trawls is the lack of knowledge how the pulse stimulus affects the functioning of benthic organisms. The mechanical effects are probably lower because of the reduced mechanical disturbance. The replacement of tickler chains running across the net opening by electrodes running in longitudinal direction, has halved the bycatch of benthic invertebrates. In addition, the trawling footprint, defined as the sea floor area swept per hour trawling, is 23% lower than the footprint of the conventional beam trawl due to the reduction in towing speed from about 6.5 to 5 knots. In ecological terms these two factors constitute a highly positive contribution to diminishing the impact of trawling on the North Sea benthic ecosystem. Because the pulse trawl vessels showed a change in their spatial distribution, differences in habitat sensitivity need to be taken into account on top of the additional impact of electrical stimulation to assess the ultimate change in impact on the seafloor.

I want an unaffected seabed!

Therefore I vote for pulse fishing!

Meet the experts!

January 15th 18h N3.2 European Parliament Strasbourg

“Information on Pulse Fisheries in relation to the 16 Janaury Vote”

Contact:

VisNed: Pim Visser 0031 653146220

Nederlandse Vissersbond: Durk van Tuinen 0031 642408572