Fishing Gear Technology in an Era of Climate Change, Fuel Efficiency and Environmental Footprint of Fisheries

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, within the European Union and other individual countries, there has been widespread discussion about the impact of fishing on marine resources, the water column, and the benthic environment. This Special Issue aims to address the potential to improve fuel efficiency, reduce fuel consumption and GHG emissions, limit fishing costs, and the contribution of fishing to climate change by studying the selectivity of different fishing gears. Using modifications and accessories in fishing gear could minimize the number of undersized individuals caught in by-catches and discards, especially endangered species, and the use of alternative fuels and propulsion systems. There is also interest in studying the complications caused by the specificities of individual fisheries, for example, the impacts on multi-species diversity of bottom trawling in the Mediterranean.

The present Special Issue welcomes papers on the following subjects for all types of fishing gear:

1. Selectivity studies (by size and/or species diversity), especially for multi-species fishery cases;
2. Fishing gear modifications (grids, flaps, openings, mesh sizes, diaphragms, excluding devices, etc.) to improve selectivity and or prevent environmental impacts as well as a comparison between standard and modified gears (for performance, );
3. Fishing gear materials (for example, new synthetic materials, combinations of materials, etc.)  and comparisons between new and standard gears;
4. Fuel use and efficiency in fishing, including GHG emissions data and/or methods to reduce such impacts on the climate and environment;
5. Fishing and climate change effects and interactions;
6. Specific gear for alien species.

Dr. Alexis Conides
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• fishery cases
• fishing gear modifications
• fishing gear materials
• fuel use and efficiency in fishing
• fishing and climate change effects and interactions
• specific gear for alien species