| Summary: | Gillnets made of the biodegradable resin polybutylene succinate co-adipate-co-terephthalate were tested under commercial fishing conditions to compare their fishing performance with that of conventional nylon polyamide (PA) gillnets. Both types of gillnets were made of 0.55 mm Ø monofilaments. However, since the biodegradable nets are weaker than nylon PA nets when using the same monofilament diameter, we also used biodegradable nets made of 0.60 mm Ø monofilament that had a similar tensile strength to the 0.55 mm Ø nylon PA nets. The relative catch efficiency of the different gillnet types was evaluated over the 2018 autumn fishing season for saithe and cod in northern Norway. For cod, both biodegradable gillnets (0.55 and 0.60 mm) had a significantly lower catch efficiency compared to the traditional nylon PA net (0.55 mm) with estimated catch efficiencies of 62.38% (CI: 50.55-74.04) and 54.96% (CI: 35.42-73.52) compared with the nylon PA net, respectively. Similarly for saithe, both biodegradable gillnets (0.55 and 0.60 mm) had a lower estimated catch efficiency compared to the traditional nylon PA net (0.55 mm) with estimated catch efficiencies of 83.40% (71.34-94.86) and 83.87% (66.36-104.92), compared with the nylon PA net, respectively. Tensile strength does not explain the differences in catch efficiency between the two gillnet types, since increasing the twine diameter of the biodegradable gillnets (to match the strength of nylon PA gillnets) did not yield similar catch efficiencies. However, the elasticity and stiffness of the materials may be responsible for the differences in catch efficiency between the nylon PA and biodegradable gillnets.
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