This study investigated the efficiency of a sieve‐panel concept, intended to separate bycatch species from Nephrops (Norway lobster) in a trawl gear via mechanical and behavioural means. Four different designs of varying panel mesh size or inclination were tested in experimental fishing. For each design, the length‐dependent sieving efficiency, defined as the fraction of Nephrops or fish passing through the panel to the lower...

The investigation of larval dispersal and retention, their variability and dependence on wind conditions, has become a major topic in fisheries research owing to potential effects on stock recruitment and stock structuring. The present study quantifies the wind‐induced variability of larval retention of herring in a highly productive coastal lagoon of the Western Baltic Sea. This lagoon, the Greifswalder Bodden, represents the...

A wind‐driven meso‐scale pattern of temperature, salinity and oxygen was found along a transect in the northern Bornholm Basin (southern Baltic Sea). Strong winds caused currents along this transect, which shifted cold intermediate water (minimum: 3.6°C) towards the south. The transect was surveyed with a towed CTD‐system and hydroacoustics in parallel to investigate the distribution of sprat, Sprattus sprattus balticus (Schn....

Otolith microstructure analysis and hydrodynamic modelling were combined to study growth patterns in young‐of‐the‐year (YoY) sprat, Sprattus sprattus , which were sampled in October 2002 in the central Baltic Sea. The observed ‘window of survival’, approximated by the distribution of back‐calculated days of first feeding (DFF), was narrow compared to the extended spawning season of sprat in the Baltic Sea (mean± SD = 22 June ±...