It is reported that an international group of 13 specialists met in Hirtshals to talk about fishing gear. The idea was to work on ideas that could take the best of the seine net and trawl concepts to come up with something that would fish efficiently, work in an environmentally friendly way and also require a modest fuel consumption.
Representatives form various companies and organizations from Iceland, Denmark and Norway have come together to discuss fishing gear development. The three from Iceland were Lárus Thór Pálmason and Hördur Jónsson from NesNet ehf, and Haraldur Arnar Einarsson from the Icelandic Marine Research Institute (MRI). The meeting was chaired by Ulrik Jes Hansen of SINTEF.
The discussion turned to the possibilities of developing seine net gears that could be the towed fishing gears of the future. One of the main reasons for the seine net being seen as the future is the projected figure of 0.13 litres of fuel consumed per kilo of landed fish, a considerably lower figure than is achieved with trawl-caught fish. These figures, however, vary considerably according to different circumstances.
Research by MRI in Iceland has shown based on examination of fishing methods and fishing grounds in Skagafjördur is something of a controversial subject, as there are those who oppose this type of fishing and claim that it both catches everything in its path and also damages the seabed. One possible solution would be to limit some areas to seine net fishing and others exclusively to hook and static net fishing.
It is mentioned that this new fishing gear needs to have a longer towing time than the conventional seine net, or have a method of holding it open for longer. It needs to be light on fuel. It needs to be kind to the seabed and not use demersal trawl doors. It needs to fish efficiently on the target species. It needs to have some kind of integral spreading mechanism so that it stays open without the use of trawl doors.
