Fishing Gear Handling Trials of a Twin Rig Trawling System using a 2 Warp Arrangement

Summary

There has been considerable increase in the number of European fishermen adopting multi-rig trawling techniques over the past few years. Danish and Norwegian fishermen in particular have adopted twin-trawl systems, using a three warp arrangement to exploit Nephrops, shrimp and white fish fisheries. The three warp system requires the vessel to be equipped with a three barrel winch arrangement. A specification not normally found on standard trawl winches. Seafish decided to evaluate a twin-rig trawling system utilising a two warp arrangement that could be adopted by most fishing vessels equipped for normal bottom trawling operations. A rig was designed and made up and fitted aboard a 12m stern trawler fishing for Nephrops from the North East coast port of North Shields. The trials described in this report present an evaluation of the twin trawl system with regard to the handling of the rig. The trawls used in these trials were two identical nets designed by Seafish. The nets are the same ones as were used in previous trials to evaluate a double-rig system using the trhree warp arrangement. (1297 - Double Rig and Separator Trawl trials held in the Firth of Forth. This report has been produced from a scanned original and may therefore contain some formatting and other inaccuracies. In cases where this affects the technical content, a paper copy of the original report can still be obtained from Seafish.

Publication Reference No.

1310