Re: [Paddlewise] Commercial Fishing Gear [OT]

D Lee wrote:
> 
> Thanks to all for the interesting discussion.  I think Capt. Reid summed
> it up the best.  Apparently some of the Gloucester boats are "evolution"
> boats saddled with trawler booms and top-heavy with add-on command decks,
> so unstable that underwater stabilizer wings are utilized (as many of
> you, including Craig Hicks and Dave Seng, noted).  I wasn't previously
> aware of the need for stabilizer wings/disks on non-trawlers, but the
> movie clearly showed anchors hanging from the booms, not stabilizer
> wings, didn't it? 

No, those were not anchors.  They were standard stabilizers.  They are heavily
built so they will sink into the water enough to stabilize the boat.  And no,
the use of stabilizers is not restricted to "unstable" boats.  The stabilizers
are used to damp out the roll of the vessel so it is easier to work on (check
out Capt. Reid's words, at the end).  I can go look at any of a dozen drag
boats moored two miles from here, and they will all be equipped with
stabilizers.

It is probably true that some of the Gloucester boats are slung together with
too much steel up top, but even drag boats which are designed specifically (and
carefully) for that fishery use the stabilizers.

> I learned that the Grand Banks cod fishery was a gillnet fishery.  As I
> recall, gillnets are typically fed and retrieved from a spool or reel
> similar to a longline spool/reel, and the stern is usually very low to
> allow pulling the net on board.  The fish are picked from the net as it's
> reeled in.

Some salmon gillnet boats retrieve the net over the bow.  

> There was a lot of well-meaning misinformation given out.  Gillnets are
> not trawled.  They're hung from floats and either drifted or anchored.
> The mesh size dictates what they catch.  You might use 4" mesh for
> salmon, and 1/4" [sic; more like 1 inch] mesh for anchovies.
>  As Kirk Olsen noted, there's a lot
> of potential abuse from gillnets, and lost drift gillnets continue to
> kill for years.  All nets are indiscriminate killers of anything that
> gets caught in them, including undersize fish, turtles, and dolphins.

For a serious look at the issue Darrell raises for groundfishing, check out: 
http://www.times.org/archives/1999/undersea1.htm   Even commercial fishers
recognize the impact groundfishing has on habitat.

> Trollers use much thinner booms that only need to be strong enough to
> hold 3 or 4 trolling lines on each side.  Trolling booms can't really be
> mistaken for trawler booms.  Salmon, albacore, Dorado, and billfish are
> common troll-caught fish.

True, although high seas trollers have booms that are pretty herky.

> Dave Kruger and Gabriel Romeu asked about fishing gear.  Trawlers or
> draggers don't use gear off the stern.  They use massive side booms to
> spread and retrieve a massive net that drags close to the sea bottom.

Huh?  I can go examine any of twenty local draggers and they all retrieve their
nets over the stern.  I agree some use booms to deploy the net, which would be
beam or outrigger trawlers.  Here is a section off the Brittanica Web site to
clarify this:

BEGIN
Stern trawlers 

Practically all trawlers built today are stern trawlers, with the trawl
launched and recovered over the stern. The vessels are generally designed with
the wheelhouse and superstructure forward, often forming part of the raised
forecastle. By contrast, the working deck aft is lower, and, on the larger 
trawlers a ramp is built into the stern up which the trawl is pulled onto the
deck. On smaller stern trawlers the trawl is lifted on board by a hoist.

 Beam or outrigger trawlers 

With this type of vessel, two beam trawls are towed from booms extending to
each side and supported by a central mast. The booms are very strong, as they
take the full weight of the trawl being towed. The mast supporting the booms
may be located forward, in which case the wheelhouse is located aft as on a
side trawler, or they may be amidships with the wheelhouse forward, as on a
stern trawler. The former type is widely used for beam trawling in Europe,
while the latter is the pattern of most shrimp trawlers. European-style beam
trawlers are the most powerful fishing vessels of their size in the world.
END

> Capt. Donald R. Reid wrote:

> > When used as a longliner, and they still had the outriggers
> > ... they would mount stablizers which were drug from them to
> > attempt to keep the boats from rolling so badly.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR

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