Anicet Mbida 6:53 am, December 20, 2021

Every day, Anicet Mbida makes us discover an innovation that could well change the way we consume.

This Monday, he is interested in a novelty that could help fishermen in difficulty because of the quotations announced, it is about selective nets which attract certain fish and which scare away others.

Perhaps a glimmer of hope at a time when fishermen are suffering the full brunt of the drop in quotas.

We are currently developing selective nets which attract certain fish and scare others away.

It is interesting for the fishermen, because a certain tolerance is granted on the quotas in the event of "selective catch".

Problem: Trawler fishing uses huge nets that collect everything indiscriminately.

The fishermen still have time to send back to the sea anything that has been caught by mistake.

Except that the small fish may have been crushed, and the larger ones, mutilated.

The Scottish engineers of SNTech have therefore developed a selective net.

It catches only the type of fish you have chosen and lets all the others escape.

This helps prevent overfishing.

How it works ?

Are there holes in the net?

Exactly.

There are small light rings all along the net.

They create openings which will guide the small fish towards the exit.

This is important, because sometimes they don't even know they've been tricked.

With these lights, they will quickly realize that something is wrong.

And the little ones will be able to escape before the net comes up.

Finally, at the entrance, in front of the opening of the net, another system of colored lights and ultrasound is installed which will either attract or scare away certain species.

The net therefore acts both as a scarecrow for protected species and provides emergency exits for small fish.

It is still research where the net is already available ...

That's it, it's available.

This is not the only one.

Ifremer is also working on a selective trawl which, for its part, relies on cameras and a motorized net which opens and closes according to the fish that appear.

But there is still research.

This work is very important, because 25%, on average, of what is caught is thrown back into the sea. Fish often already dead or dying.

Overfishing which degrades biodiversity and forces quotas to be lowered.