A new prawn trawling net could help fishermen significantly reduce the number of unwanted juvenile white fish caught.

Recent trials with the new net off the north-east of England produced not only a reduction in the number of unwanted fish, but an increase in the prawn catch.

Fishing in the area is under pressure, following demands from the European Union for constraints on fishing to protect stocks, and calls for the decommissioning of trawlers.

Now industry body Seafish hopes the results of the trawl will encourage fishermen to take advantage of the new design.

The trawl has a lot of potential in reducing discards, whilst at the same time maintaining good quantities of prawns Ronald Milne, fisherman

The trials took place over a three-week period off the coast of Northumberland.

The new prawn net design prevents fish entering accidentally.

Seafish senior gear technologist Ken Arkley said: "We are pleased with the results of the recent trials and encouraged by the success of this new approach to 'discard' reduction.

"It is obviously preferable to avoid unwanted fish being caught in the first place rather than relying on methods of release after the fish have been captured.

"We have demonstrated that significant reductions in the numbers of haddock and whiting caught can be achieved using this approach.

"We would now like to investigate the potential for modifying other commercial designs of prawn trawl to achieve the same effect."

'Good qualities'

Comparative fishing trials were carried out by the fishing vessels Oceana and Osprey III, working out of Blyth.

The study showed a reduction in the cod catch of 11%, haddock by 6% and whiting by 65%, whilst the prawn catch increased by 20%.

Most of the white fish lost would have been juveniles.

Ronald Milne, skipper of the Osprey III, said: "The trawl has a lot of potential in reducing discards, whilst at the same time maintaining good quantities of prawns."