Ashworth did not discover any distinction in crab or lobster catches, he found huge numbers of European king scallops in his pots.The lights were supposed to attract crabs into the pots but unexpectedly scallops were more brought in to the LED lights. Photograph: Simon Hird/Fishtek Marine”Pretty much every pot that we carried had scallops in them and yet every haul without lights had no scallops. Follow-up lab experiments are needed to understand why they are brought in into pots, and if its a reputable and reproducible behaviour at a variety of various types of scallop websites, then its definitely an exciting prospect to grow a more sustainable scallop fishery.
Ashworth did not see any difference in crab or lobster catches, he discovered substantial numbers of European king scallops in his pots.The lights were supposed to draw in crabs into the pots however all of a sudden scallops were more attracted to the LED lights. Photo: Simon Hird/Fishtek Marine”Pretty much every pot that we hauled had scallops in them and yet every haul without lights had no scallops.”In further experiments, an overall of 1,886 pots were carried– 985 speculative pots with lights captured 518 scallops; 901 control pots without lights captured only two. In experiments, of 1,886 pots hauled, 985 pots with lights captured 518 scallops while 901 pots without lights caught just 2. Follow-up laboratory experiments are required to understand why they are drawn in into pots, and if its a reproducible and reputable behaviour at a variety of different types of scallop sites, then its certainly an interesting possibility to grow a more sustainable scallop fishery.
