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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 11
July 2006
Fishermen watch trawls perform in flume tank
Industry workshop at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland
by Janice M. Plante
ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND – For a week in mid-May, commercial fishermen from four New England states had the chance to view scaled-down models of a dozen-and-a-half different trawl designs in the largest flume tank in the world.
The 1.7-million-liter (449,000-gallon) tank is housed in St. John’s at Memorial University, home to the renowned Fisheries and Marine Institute and its Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Resources.
In this remarkable facility, fishermen had the opportunity to witness the performance of haddock separator trawls, raised footrope trawls, experimental shrimp trawls, and numerous other models through a 66'-long glass observation window as flume tank technicians manipulated water velocity to simulate various towing speeds and sea conditions.
“It was a great experience,” said Troy Dwyer, owner of the Scituate, MA-based dragger Atlantis. “It took a lot of the guesswork out of what my own gear was doing, and it gave me ideas for how to make adjustments.”
Dwyer was one of 15 participants in the last of a series called “Industry Workshop on Trawl Selectivity and Conservation,” organized by Pingguo He of the University of New Hampshire (UNH).
Two previous workshops were held in May of 2004 and 2005 respectively. A total of 51 people went through the program, which was made possible through $139,000 in funding from the Northeast Consortium and UNH. UNH covered indirect costs.
Doors, selectivity
In addition to the model demonstrations, workshop participants were able to tap into a wealth of information about trawl door theory, fish behavior near trawls, and gear selectivity as it applies to today’s ever-changing fisheries.
Ed Barrett, who owns two 40' Plymouth, MA-based day-trip draggers, said, “It was like a light coming on in a dark room. There were things I had been working on for 30 years – things that I was trying to conceptualize – but here I got to see it in person.”
Joel Hovanesian, owner of the 72' Point Judith, RI-based Excalibur, videotaped a good portion of the trawl demonstrations, as well as other workshop segments, for further study back home.
As the week drew to an end, Hovanesian tried to express to He and the flume tank staff the sheer excitement of his time at the facility.
“When I went to sleep at night, I couldn’t wait to get up the next morning so we could start over again,” he said.
Diversity of gear
The trawl models tested in the tank generally ranged in scale from 1:6 to 1:10 when compared to their full-size equivalents. Among them were:
The trawl survey net used by Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO);
The trawl survey net now being tested by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for future stock assessments aboard the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s soon-to-be-delivered Henry B. Bigelow;
The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries trawl survey net;
A triple-codend multilevel experimental shrimp net used by the Fisheries and Marine Institute at Memorial University to test whether shrimp of different sizes separate as they enter the net;
A beam trawl;
A midwater trawl;
A typical Nova Scotian cod/flounder net;
A flounder trawl used by an 88' Portland, ME-based fishing vessel;
A 286 balloon trawl used by a 45' vessel in New Hampshire;
A raised footrope experimental haddock trawl designed at UNH;
An experimental rope separator haddock trawl designed at UNH; and
A topless shrimp trawl, also designed at UNH.
Workshop benefits
The flume tank demonstrations had an immediate impact on almost everyone in the group.
“I was coming up with ideas already for my own gear,” said Scituate fisherman Steve Welch, owner of a 70' dragger and a 55' gillnetter.
“Being able to visualize the way different types of selective gear work is going to help us in the future. It’ll allow me the opportunity to fish sustainably and participate in cooperative research,” he said.
Seabrook, NH fisherman Charles “Puggy” Felch, owner of the 45' dragger/gillnetter Lady Victoria, took part in the workshop with his wife of 38 years, Vicki “Cupcake” Felch, who builds his nets.
Fascinated by the range of trawl designs presented during the workshop, Vicki Felch took copious notes, documenting net construction details for every model that flew through the tank.
However, although she found the workshop to be an enormous help to her net building work, Vicki Felch valued the experience for another reason. Her job has been land based, and until the workshop, she never really had a grasp on the dynamics of fishing.
“This taught me how the nets are set in the water, dragged, and hauled out,” she said. “After all these years, now I know what my husband does. I really enjoyed this a lot.”
Puggy Felch called the session on doors “very informative.”
“I really only know one set of doors,” he said. “But next time, I’ll try to make a change to a different set because of the technology.”
NMFS net
One big bonus of the workshop was that participants had a chance to see a 1:7 scale model of NMFS’s new trawl survey net in action.
Contacted after the workshop, Russell Brown, who heads up the Ecosystem Surveys Branch at the Woods Hole, MA-based Northeast Fisheries Science Center, explained that scientists, gear experts, and commercial fishermen first tested the model in the flume tank a year ago.
“We have made some modifications to the net since we built the model,” he said.
Those modifications, which have enhanced the performance of the full-scale survey net, came as a result of what everyone learned during the flume tank tests and subsequent sea trials.
“One of the key features we were able to discern (from the flume tank work) was optimal wing and door spread for the net,” said Brown.
The science center is now awaiting the September delivery of its new 208' fisheries survey vessel, the Henry B. Bigelow. Then, the survey net will undergo more sea trials on the very same research vessel that will be towing it during stock assessments.
“We basically have a final design, but we need to decide on a door size, so we need to do tests on the Bigelow,” Brown said.
Brown had a chance to be onboard the Bigelow in the Gulf of Mexico at the end of May.
“It’s a beautiful ship,” he said.
Tank saves sea time
According to Pingguo He, the workshop evolved over the three years and was able to include more trawl models relevant to New England fisheries. And this year, He provided an overview of ongoing fisheries research at UNH, which gave workshop participants an understanding of his own work.
He’s familiarity with Memorial University and St. John’s were a tremendous asset to the workshop. He was based at Memorial University for almost 12 years, during which time he worked as a senior researcher and fish behaviorist prior to accepting a post as a research associate professor at UNH in April 2001.
He emphasized the unparalleled advantages of being able to test gear in the flume tank prior to being on a boat.
“If I was looking at a new net design, I’d come here first – with fishermen,” said He. “It’s so expensive to do sea trials, especially with days-at-sea. It’s too expensive to make changes at sea.”
Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Resources Program Chair Roy Gibbons, whose years of experience in gear performance and fisheries were evident as he oversaw flume tank operations, further emphasized the value of testing gear in a group dynamics situation.
“You never really know it all. You just share – and then you know more,” he said.
Newfoundland tour
On the final day of the workshop, participants had the chance to visit part of the coastline of Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula. The tour started in St. John’s, home to a sizable fleet of crab and shrimp boats, along with the occasional seal harvesting vessel and numerous oil supply and support vessels.
The field trip progressed around the contour of Conception Bay, passing numerous small villages and fishing ports, including Harbour Grace, once a favored reprovisioning destination of US swordfish boats. It ended in Old Perlican at the northwestern tip of the Avalon Peninsula near the mouth of Trinity Bay.
Here, workshop participants got a good look at the local fleet– roughly 50 boats strong – all dedicated to the harvest of snow crab and northern shrimp, Pandalus borealis, the same species harvested by Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts fishermen.
Snow crab and shrimp dominate the fisheries in Newfoundland these days. According to Canada’s DFO, the 2006 queen/snow crab quota for the Newfoundland region was set at 46,233 metric tons (mt). The region’s shrimp quota was set at 157,094 mt.
Workshop participants got to tour Old Perlican’s Quin-Sea Fisheries Ltd. processing facility, which had both its crab and shrimp lines in full production.
On a different note, several workshop participants said they simply felt good being in St. John’s – good because fishermen were a part of life there, accepted and valued as fundamental to the community and economy. Being immersed in that atmosphere for a week, coupled with the flume tank experience and exposure to new gear and new fishing communities, gave several in the group renewed satisfaction with their chosen profession.
“This helped me make a lot of connections, both with the other fishermen and to the conservation issues,” said Tim Barrett, owner of the 40' Plymouth, MA-based Four Kids.
Tim’s brother Ed Barrett believed everyone in the group was extremely fortunate to have spent a week at the Marine Institute.
“It’s a diamond of a resource and I was thankful to be able to discover it,” he said.
Tim Barrett added, “Pingguo was an excellent host. He had a lot to offer in terms of information. We’re all happy with the effort he put in to pull the program together.”
Steve Welch agreed.
“I really wanted to come just to see how these different types of gear worked, but this surpassed everything I could have expected,” he said.
Puggy Felch put it this way.
“It was a total experience,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect when I got here, but I learned a lot. It’s a real schooling. I’d recommend it to any fisherman.”
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