Effect of trap soak times on risk of bycatch from offshore lobster Homarus americanus fishing operations in southwest Nova Scotia, Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The Canadian lobster Homarus americanus industry faces the challenge of minimizing bycatch (discarded lobster and non-target species) while optimizing catch rates in a quota-managed fishery. This study assessed the effect of varying soak times (2-14 d) on trap catches off the southwest coast of Nova Scotia. In a 1 yr, controlled, industry-led trial, the most comprehensive study of bycatch in the Canadian lobster industry, soak times were representative of commercial operations, and electronic monitoring provided independently validated data. Employing mixed logistic regressions, a significant correlation was found between extended soak times and increased risk of capturing cusk Brosme brosme and unidentified bycatch species (not specifically monitored), while no significant associations were observed for white hake Urophycis tenuis, Jonah crab Cancer borealis, Atlantic cod Gadus morhua, and rock crab Cancer irroratus. The overall impact of soak times on estimated bycatch weights for cusk and unidentified species was minor compared to more influential factors such as fishing area, depth, and temporal trends. Reducing soak times may decrease cusk and unidentified bycatch but would lead to a substantial reduction in landed lobster, requiring increased fishing efforts. Historical evidence, from regular independent at-sea observer coverage and government analysis, emphasizes that fleet rationalization and footprint concentration through trap reduction exerted a larger impact on bycatch rates than the observed changes from soak time alterations in the study. Acknowledging such historical insights will be helpful for planning strategies for mitigating bycatch in lobster trap fisheries taking place in similar environmental and operational conditions.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".