Duration: 19 to 28 January 2026

Area: Baltic Sea

Purpose: Fishing technique

This voyage will focus on fishing technology, with particular emphasis on the selectivity of trawl nets. To this end, trials will be conducted using ORCA (Outflow-diverted, Roofless-Codend Assembly), an innovative selection system developed for trawl fishing for flatfish in the Baltic Sea.
The aim is to optimise species separation, size selection and commercial usability in order to achieve greater compliance with the European Union's Common Fisheries Policy and the landing obligation. At the same time, the catch value and fish welfare are to be optimised and damage to unwanted species minimised.

The fishing trials will be conducted in ICES subareas 24 and 25 in German and Danish waters of the Baltic Sea. The catches will be distributed opportunistically and will target a mixture of flatfish species and cod. Data on catch selectivity will be collected using dual gear (Solea double-belly trawl), but depending on the quality of the data collected, the scientific crew may decide to switch to the cover codend method.

Here, a catch basket (cover) is located above the actual catch section (codend). Fish that escape through the meshes of the codend are caught in the outer cover. This makes it possible to determine the minimum size a fish must be in order to be retained.

The voyage represents another milestone in the long-standing and fruitful collaboration between the Thünen Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries (Thünen-OF) and the Danish Technical University / National Institute of Aquatic Resources (DTU-Aqua) in the development of technologies that can contribute to the recovery of Baltic Sea cod stocks.