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Borges, L., van Keeken, O. A., van Helmond, A. T. M., Couperus, B., and Dickey-Collas, M. 2008. What do pelagic freezer-trawlers discard? – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 605–611. Estimates of discards by the Dutch pelagic freezer-trawler fleet were derived based on data from observers on board commercial vessels. In all, 27 fishing trips of duration 2–5 weeks each were sampled between 2002 and 2005, covering the North Sea and the western waters of the British Isles. Different methods to estimate discards were compared, and raising these estimates by number of trips or by total landings did not greatly influence the annual estimates of total discards. Some 30 000 t of fish were discarded annually by the fleet, the commercial target species mackerel, herring, and horse mackerel being discarded most, with 41%, 19%, and 15% of the total discards by weight, respectively. The most commonly discarded non-commercial species was boarfish, accounting for 5% of total discards. Slippage accounts for 10% of all discards, and the most common species slipped is herring. There is extensive discarding of juvenile mackerel in the horse mackerel fishery, and to a lesser extent highgrading of mackerel in the same fishery. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract One of the clearest relationships between a single marine climate variable and fisheries yield is found between the transport of Atlantic water into the North Sea in the winter and catches of horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus L.) in the northern North Sea 6 months later. A three-dimensional numerical model, the NORWegian ECOlogical Model system (NORWECOM), has estimated this inflow during the winter from 1976 to 2000, which is strongly correlated with the Norwegian fleet's catch of horse mackerel (r 2 = 0.70) in the following autumn. It is hypothesized that a large influx of this relatively warm and nutrient rich water during the winter may support an early spawning of zooplankton and high biological production during the spring and summer. This might be the biological reason for a large fraction of the horse mackerel stock migrating into the North Sea during strong inflows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]