Development of the biodegradable octopus pot and its catch ability comparison with a Polyethylene (PE) pot

Abstract

Biodegradable octopus pot was developed to reduce plastic pollution problem in the sea and fishing trouble between fishermen. It can be expect to recycle other wasted biodegrade fishing gear. Experimental fishing was carried out to understand the difference in fishing efficiency between Polyethylene (PE) octopus pots and biodegradable (Polybutylene Succinate and Polybutylene adipate-co-terephthalate) octopus pots which was tried to make in this study in the sea. There were caught by 237 numbers of fishing during the experimental period. Among the 237 numbers of fishing, 160 or 67.5% were PE pots which were more than the biodegradable pots. A comparison of the monthly catches between the PE pots and biodegradable pots shows that the catches were overall higher in the PE pots than in the other pots. The result is very similar with the comparison of total catches by each type of the pots. In terms of bycatch, the number of species, amount of catches and the number of fishing with bycatch were more significant in the biodegradable pots than in the PE pots.