![]() ![]() “Our goal is to get as close to a commercially viable fishery as we can,” added Enever. ![]() The Fishtek team are repeating these experiments in four more UK locations, from Lyme Bay to the Orkney Islands, using different trap designs in various conditions and depths. ![]() Follow-up laboratory experiments are required to understand why they are attracted into pots, and if it’s a reliable and reproducible behaviour at a range of different types of scallop sites, then it’s certainly an exciting prospect to grow a more sustainable scallop fishery.” “Scallop eyes have a surprisingly high degree of visual clarity and their attraction to artificial light is intriguing. “Scallops are famous for their good vision,” said Dr Vicky Sleight, a marine biologist at the University of Aberdeen. If the team can design a light system aimed specifically to catch scallops, that could open up the possibilities of doing this at scale, according to Stewart. The trap design has been modified with a ramp for easier access into the modified pot and Enever continues to refine the potlight technology – tank experiments indicate that scallops are more attracted to blue light than white light, for example. Powered by two rechargeable AA batteries, each small potlight is secured inside the pot and is expected to last between five and 10 years. Perhaps they prefer illuminated areas because they provide safety from predators or because it’s easier to find the plankton they eat.” They have mirrors at the back of their eyes and they also have two retinas, one which senses darker things, one that senses lighter things, so they can possibly use that contrast to sense movement. “Most animals, including us, have lenses but scallops don’t. Scallops can have up to 200 eyes on their mantle, along the inner edges of their shell openings. “This is one of the most exciting things I have come across in my whole career – it’s such a surprise,” said Stewart, who describes scallop eyes as ‘pretty weird’. Photograph: Simon Hird/Fishtek Marineĭr Bryce Stewart, a marine ecologist and fisheries biologist at the University of York, has studied scallops for more than 20 years and co-authored the paper with Evener alongside scientists at the University of Exeter. In experiments, of 1,886 pots hauled, 985 pots with lights caught 518 scallops while 901 pots without lights caught only two. Although Ashworth did not notice any difference in crab or lobster catches, he found huge numbers of European king scallops in his pots. In 2019, Enever, who specialises in reducing the impacts of fishing on the marine environment using technology, trialled the potlights with the Newlyn-based fisher Jon Ashworth off the Cornish coast. However, using scuba divers to hand-pick them is labour intensive, time-consuming and therefore more expensive.Įnever hopes scallop potting could create a low-input, low-impact fishery that supplements the income of crab and lobster fishers with this high-value catch. Most are caught by dredging, which at an industrial-scale is damaging to marine habitats. “This has the potential to open up a whole new inshore fishery and that’s a global first.”Ĭommercially, scallops are the most valuable fishery in England and the fourth most valuable in the UK, according to the latest government sea fisheries statistics. 00:18 Scallops jump into pots with ‘disco’ lights in potential new fishing strategy – video ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |