Accidental discovery that scallops love ‘disco’ lights leads to new fishing technique
An unusual technique for catching scallops that was stumbled upon accidentally by scientists could potentially reduce some of the damage caused to our seabeds by fishing.
The marine scientist Dr Rob Enever and his team at Fishtek Marine, a fisheries consultancy based in Devon, designed small underwater “potlights” to help protect fish stocks by replacing the need to use fish to bait crab and lobster pots.
The lights were supposed to attract crabs into the pots. But quite unexpectedly, scallops, which can have up to 200 eyes, were more attracted to the LED lights. “It’s like a scallop disco – illuminate the trap and they come in. It’s astonishing that no one else has discovered this before. It’s quite an exciting find,” said Enever.
Commercially, scallops are the most valuable fishery in England and the fourth most valuable in the UK, according to the latest government sea fisheries statistics. Most are caught by dredging, which at an industrial-scale is damaging to marine habitats. However, using scuba divers to hand-pick them is labour intensive, time-consuming and therefore more expensive.
