Ísfell is set to break into the market in Iceland for pelagic gear with its M1771 trawl, with the first set of this new design already on board and ready to go when the mackerel season gets underway.
Veteran fishing gear technologist Birkir Agnarsson at the company’s Westman Islands branch is behind the development of this trawl, designed with a broad opening, and which promises to push low towing resistance to new levels.
‘This is a four-panel wide-body design and it’s constructed with the forward part down to the 4-metre mesh in overbraided Dyneema in small diameters,’ he said, commenting that this high-strength material has the strength that enables 6.50mm ropes to be used.
‘Others are using 16 and 18mm, so the M1771 is going to be much lighter to tow – although it’s not easy to tell just how much lighter as this is such a big step. We’ve tested this as a scale model in the flume tank, so we’re going to have to wait for it to be in use to get the true figures. But it looks good.’
The first M1771 pelagic trawl has been delivered to an Icelandic pelagic vessel, complete with an eight-panel belly made in PE with some Dyneema sections, plus a 100-metre codend.
‘We’ve done everything to minimize the towing resistance, and using T90 in part of the belly and the codends also makes a difference. The codend has a 60-metre circumference – which is thanks to the T90 mesh configuration,’ Birkir Agnarsson said, and added that with this Ísfell is entering a difficult market.
‘What we hear from the industry is that there’s a pressing need for some real competition in this sector, and this trawl looks very promising.’
Ísfell’s Húsavík branch has developed a revised design for its AngCos shrimp trawl, and Kári Páll Jónasson explained that this is the latest version of this successful design. This is a trawl pattern with a 40-year history behind it and this latest version benefits from computer modeling and tank testing. There are some significant design alterations to fine-tune it for better spread both vertically and horizontally.
‘There are also new HDPE materials that have gone into this. The fine twine sizes mean that we can reduce towing resistance and users can get better catch rates. This winter we have been supplying shrimp trawls all over. These are used for twin- and triple-rig trawling,’ he said, commenting that Ísfell’s Greenlandic customers are using these trawls in their home waters, while the gear supplied to companies in the Baltic States, the Netherlands and Norway are used in the Barents Sea, plus the handful of Icelandic vessels fishing for shrimp are using AngCos trawls.
In addition to trawls, Ísfell is a major supplier of trawl warp, and has been the Bridon-Bekaert dealer in Iceland for decades.
Now the first Icelandic trawler to use the latest Double Dyform Bridon warp has been using this for several months, with good results, according to Grétar Björnsson who handles the company’s wire business.
‘Thórunn Sveinsdóttir has this on board and now we’ve delivered the same warp to the new Sigurbjörg, which has Double Dyform warp on all four winch drums,’ he said.
‘It has a higher breaking strength and excellent abrasion resistance, so this should be a longer-lasting type of wire. But this is just the beginning,’ he added, commenting that the higher strength means that it’s possible to reduce warp diameter, going from 30mm to 28mm, so there’s less weight on the drums and a reduction in towing resistance.
