Seafish is running a training course in basic trawl gear technology at the Sintef flume tank at the North Sea Centre in Hirtshals on Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th of February.
‘This course is aimed at fishery managers, legislators, researchers, NGO’s etc and any groups or individuals that have an interest in the catching sector and would like to extend their knowledge in the gear used by the UK industry and the selectivity of these gears,’ said Mike Montgomerie of Seafish.
The two-day course includes flume tank demonstrations of a wide variety of fishing gears in use in UK waters, as well as selectivity devices in use.
These include beam trawl gear used as part of rollerball and 50% projects, square mesh panels, coverless, low headline trawls with a demonstration of coverless prawn trawl compared to a standard prawn trawl, large mesh top panels, various rigid grids in nephrops and shrimp trawls, separator panels and inclined separator panels, various forms of inclined panels, T90 netting and codends, four-panel codends, square mesh codends and flying door rigs.
‘When trawl gear is in the water it’s impossible to see how it actually works so we have taken hundreds of fishermen to the flume tank in Hirtshals over the years to show them the gear in action. It really helps them to understand what they are catching and why,’ Mike Montgomerie said.
‘With the implementation of the ban on discarding unwanted catch, we thought it was important that those who work in fisheries management and legislation also have the opportunity to understand trawl gear technology and trawl selectivity. The flume tank offers a unique opportunity to see fishing gear in action as you’ve never seen it before.’
The course is free to attend with participants covering their own subsistence and travel to Denmark.
For more information, visit the Seafish website or contact Seafish fishing gear technologist Mike Montgomerie on 07984 565 386 / mike.montgomerie@seafish.co.uk
