Mixed fisheries management: Is the ban on discarding likely to promote more selective and fuel efficient fishing in the Dutch flatfish fishery?

•High fuel prices have created incentive for fishers to switch to lighter, more fuel-efficient gear.•A discard ban has the potential to reduce fishing effort and change fishing behaviour.•A discard ban increases the economic incentive for switching to the pulse gear.

We model the potential effects of a discard ban on the annual fishing strategy of individual fishers in a mixed fishery under individual quota management. The North Sea beam trawl fishery, which catches large amounts of undersized plaice, is used as a model system. Under a discard ban, fishing is restricted to the fishing grounds and weeks where the maximum revenue can be realised with other species while catching the quota of the restricted species with a reduced bycatch of undersized fish. Model results suggest that, if properly enforced, a discard ban provides an incentive to implement more selective fishing gears that catch fewer small fish and are more fuel efficient (pulse trawl). If a discard ban is not properly enforced, restrictive quota do not necessarily result in the intended decrease in discarding as the fishery continues to fish while discarding the over-quota catch and least valuable size classes caught.