Duration: 15 to 26 September 2025

Area: North Sea and Baltic Sea

Purpose: Technical fishing trials for the shrimp fishery

The need for sustainable utilisation of marine resources poses complex challenges for the shrimp fishery in the North Sea. In order to overcome these, a variety of management strategies are required that take both ecological and economic aspects into account. A key approach is the continuous development of catching and sorting devices that not only work efficiently, but can also be flexibly adapted to changing requirements.

The sea trials conducted on this topic during SOLEA's 846th voyage in March 2025 showed that the use of adaptable escape panels in a crab net can contribute to improved sorting efficiency, especially for benthic (= bottom-dwelling) species. The current SOLEA cruise will therefore take up and deepen the findings from the previous cruise.

To this end, several investigations will be carried out on two sections of the voyage: The cruise will begin with fishing trials in the North Sea in order to extensively analyse different variants of the escape panels. Subsequently, underwater video recordings will be made in the Baltic Sea to provide additional information on the structural behaviour of the catching and sorting systems. This trip will again be accompanied by a fisherman who will contribute to the further development of the escape panels and their use in commercial fishing with his expertise directly on site.