The use of drop traps to estimate the efficiency of two beam trawls commonly used for sampling juvenile flatfishes

Abstract

The efficiencies of a 2‐m and a 1·5‐m beam trawl for catching newly settled flatfish and brown shrimp were compared with that of a 1‐m 2 drop trap that was assumed to be 100% effective. Low and variable trawl efficiencies were recorded but the trawls were not size selective within the size range of individuals captured.