Bycatch reduction in shrimp trawl fisheries using a modified net design<b></b>

The shrimp trawl fishery in northern Peru operates within five nautical miles and presents high bycatch rates. To reduce the impact on marine biodiversity, a new net (MN) was designed and compared against the traditional net (TN) during 27 paired hauls from November 2019 to February 2020 in the area between Los Órganos and Lobitos, Piura. During each haul, two vessels operated simultaneously in the same area, deploying one net each, and total catch, bycatch, and discards were recorded for both nets. The MN showed a reduction of over 35% in bycatch and a 50% decrease in discards compared to the TN. The catch by weight of the target species (Penaeus californiensis) and two other commercially important bycatch species (Diplectrum conceptione and Etropus ectenes) was not significantly affected. Although a decrease in the catch of all taxonomic groups evaluated (fish, crustaceans, mollusks and macroalgae) with the MN was observed, this reduction was not statistically significant for fish. The number of species per taxonomic group (total, fish, crustaceans, mollusks) also decreased with the use of MN, for all taxa evaluated. In summary, the results of this study demonstrate that the implementation of MN, characterized by its different material, exclusion areas and larger mesh sizes compared to TN, allows reduction of the impact of this fishery without affecting the target species catch.