The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries is trying out new approaches to clearing lost fishing gear. Trials have been conducted with an ROV to retrieve lost crab traps off the Finnmark coast.
Two experienced ROV operators and two different types of underwater robots with grappling claws were brought in for this initiative.
‘This taught us a lot about how to most efficiently find and bring this gearto the surface. Some challenges still remain, but we shouldn’t ignore the fact that this is a method we can use in selected areas in the future,’ said survey leader Kristian Landmark Skaar.
In some areas, undersea cables and lost seine ropes make it difficult to search for lost gear with normal search equipment, which was a challenge on this trip. In Båtsfjord there are two submarine cables and relatively large quantities of both reported and unreported seine rope that prevent the usual technique of deploying a grapple across the position of the lost gear.
‘This method is usually effective, but if there are sea cables on the bottom, these present serious restrictions on where we can search. In some fjords in the north, there are also old seine ropes on the bottom that the fishermen also come fast on. These ropes are also extremely time-consuming for the clean-up vessel to retrieve,’ he said.
The Directorate of Fisheries’ vessel Fjorgyn searched using imaging and sonar for the positions of lost gear. When these were found, a line was attached for them too be hauled to the surface. Both whole and damaged gear was retrieved, and many had clearly been in the water for a long time.
‘A total of 29 king crab traps were picked up. In the traps that were older than the requirement for escape holes (2022), 20 live crabs were recorded, while in those with open escape holes there were no crabs, which shows that escape holes are an effective measure against ghost fishing,’ Kristian Landmark Skaar said.
