Baseline study Fish, fry and commercial fishery Nysted Offshore ...

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4.3. Discussion
As expected, cod, flounder, dab, turbot and plaice are fished at Rødsand. In addition,
silver eel are caught from September to November. The interviews did not produce any
information about catches of whiting, herring or brisling.
At least ten commercial fishermen have fished at Rødsand from 1997 to 2001. These
consist of three trawl fishermen, six gill net fishermen and one pound net fisherman.
The fish were mainly landed at Gedser and Kramnitse, Rødbyhavn and Hesnæs.
The fishermen agreed that the area is good for fishing mainly because of the abundance
sandeel and shrimp, which serves especially as food for cod and turbot.
Three trawl fishermen working at Rødsand have been recorded. They fish, especially for
cod, in the area south of the base line, from April to June and from September to
November. Net fishing for cod takes place mainly from December to May effectively in
the whole area south of Rødsand.
Turbot is mainly caught in the spring and summer up to spawning. There is agreement
that the area serves as a spawning ground for turbot.
Small numbers of plaice, flounder and dab are part of the by-catch for cod and turbot
fishermen.
Silver eel is easiest caught in pound nets from September to November because of their
migration towards the Sargasso Sea.
The annual catch of all species except turbot from 1997 to 1999 and silver eel amounts
to a small part of the total recorded in logbooks from area 38G1.
There are no records for silver eel in the logbooks, as the fishermen who catch silver eel
around Rødsand operate under coastal waters regulations. This means that data from
these fishermen is not included in the logbook data for area 38G1.
The total catches of turbot apparently equalled approximately 1 /3 of the turbot catch in
the official statistics for area 38G1 from 1997 to 1999. The difference can partly be
explained by the fact that the fishermen who catch turbot sail under the coastal waters
regulations, and so their figures are not included in the official catch statistics for area
38G1. In the years 2000 and 2001 only little turbot were recorded top be caught in the
area of the wind farm and in the reference area (some fishermen claimed they were
fishing in the area but refused to take part of the investigation these two years).
The official catch statistics show very low catches in area 38G1 in the early1980s.
Towards the end of the 1980s and the start of the 1990s, higher catches of dab and
flounder were recorded, although the catch decreased again from 1992 until 1994. From
the early 1990s, there has been an increase in the annual catch of herring, flounder,
plaice and cod. The catch of turbot peaked in 1995.
SEAS. Baseline study – Fish, fry and commercial fishery Dok. nr. 2148-03-001-rev3 2P.doc