At the symposium in Belgrade in 1966 on electrical fishing, a working party was set up for the purpose of developing an objective method of measuring the efficiency of an electrical fishing machine or a type of current, the efficiency being defined as the relationship between the number of fish caught and the number present in the water under consideration1. It emerged from the discussion in Belgrade that in different countries, or for different scientific considerations, different types of current and different methods of fishing were used in similar conditions, without any comparison which would allow the best to be recognized. It therefore appeared appropriate to assemble a group of experts to demonstrate electrical fishing in the same body of water, where each could arrange in his own way to obtain the best efficiency.
In the first instance the experts were asked to submit plans for methods of efficiency testing complying with two requirements: objectivity and reproducibility. For the sake of simplicity, the tests were to be confined to relatively simple conditions, with a portable fishing machine in a trout stream.
Two methods were proposed; one by R. Cuinat2: “Evaluation of the efficiency of an electrical fishing machine in a trout stream”, and the other by P. Lamarque2: “Proposed method for testing the efficiency of electrical fishing”; each of these methods had both advantages and disadvantages. Cuinat's method recommended the conduct of the tests in a channel or a section of a water course previously emptied of native fish, into which a known number of fish was introduced, while in the method of Lamarque the tests would be carried out in a natural stream on the native fish. For practical reasons obtaining in the local conditions, the method selected was that of Cuinat.
It was further suggested that the efficiency tests should be completed by tests of fatigue and mortality, carried out with each machine in simulated fishing conditions.
The organization of these tests was arranged locally by R. Cuinat and W. Dembinski. W. Dembinski3 agreed to organize the international meeting and the conduct of the tests, with the cooperation of A. Kiroski, K. Krasowski and J. Waluga3. The experts participating in the meeting were A. Chmielewski4, R. Cuinat, E. Halsband5, G. Hartley6, P. Lamarque, and P. Sharkey7, that is, the members of the Working Party. Four portable fishing machines were supplied by Ireland, France, Germany (Fed.Rep.of), and the United Kingdom. The machine used for clearing the section between tests was Polish.
2 Station d'Hydrobiologie, B.P. 79, 64200 Biarritz, France
3 Inland Fisheries Institute, Olstyn-Kortowo, Poland
4 Institut Elektrotechniki Przemystowe, Politechnika Poznanska, Poland
5 Bundesforschungsanstalt für Fischerei, 2, Hamburg, Federal Republic of Germany
6 Fisheries Laboratory, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, London, United Kingdom
7 Marine Electrics, Killibegs, Donegal, Ireland
