4. Discussion
When evaluating the effectiveness of a codend mesh size increase, it is important to consider conservation benefits to the target and bycatch species, as well as negative and positive economic effects on the fishery. In comparison to the codend mesh size currently in use by a majority of the Loligo fleet, 50 mm, the study results suggested that an increase to 65 mm would reduce the bycatch (in number) of butterfish and silver hake by 58% and 41%, respectively, on average. However, a codend mesh size larger than 65 mm would be necessary to allow 50% escapement of the median sizes of mature fish because the lengths at 50% retention for butterfish and silver hake were below their median lengths at maturity, by 24 mm and 36 mm, respectively. The difficulty for Loligofishery managers lies in selecting an appropriate mesh size which maximizes bycatch reduction for multiple species while concurrently minimizing catch loss of the target species, the latter which can often be of smaller size than the bycatch species. Nevertheless, the reported bycatch reductions will have conservation benefits if escapement-related mortality is low in relation to discard mortality. In this regard, the conservation benefits of the codend mesh size increase to the butterfish and silver hake stocks are expected to be high because the Loligo fishery is the primary source of butterfish discards and most of the silver hake bycatch in the Loligo fishery is also discarded ( MAFMC, 2009). In addition, survival rates of most species discarded in the L. pealeii fishery are presumably low due to lengthy tow durations which are generally three hours or longer.