Survival of trawl-caught Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus L.) after capture and release-Potential effect of codend mesh type on survival

Survival estimates were obtained for the Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, retained and escaping from a standard 70 mm mesh size diamond and a modified 55 mm square mesh codend, on board a commercial vessel in fishing grounds off the Portuguese south coast. Ten hauls were carried out, five with each experimental codend, plus three creel sets for the capture of a control group in an adjacent non-trawled area. A total of 571 lobsters were sampled upon arrival on vessel deck, either captured in the codend or retained in the codend cover. In addition, a total of 25 individuals were caught with creels. They were assessed for physical damage and vitality and subsequently placed in cages which were deployed in the same adjacent area for 48 h. Average survival rates were 0.18 and 0.17 for retained individuals and 0.17 and 0.30, for individuals escaping through diamond and square meshes, respectively, and 0.84 for creeled individuals. A discussion is carried out stressing the difficulty in disentangling the influence of the different factors contributing to condition and mortality of individual lobsters.