Page - June 16, 2008
As industrial fishing fleets sweep through the ocean, they are catching much more than what lands on our plates. Fishermen can now locate and track schools of specific fish species and scoop up tonnes at a time with kilometres of nets and hooks. But, due to the indiscriminate nature of many types of gear, targeted species are not the only ones caught in these traps.
Giant coral in bottom trawl net NW of New Zealand. This piece of gorgonian coral, bigger than the two men attempting to untangle it from their fishing nets, was more than 500 years old.
Greenpeace diver freeing a sunfish caught in a japanese "Wall of death" driftnet. Tasman Sea. 1990.
The bottom trawl net displayed here is a small example of what
is used in the deep sea. The mouth of the trawl net is held open by
two steel plate doors that help to keep the net on the seafloor.
One company markets what it calls 'Canyonbusters', trawl doors that
weigh up to five tons each (our trawl doors here weigh
approximately 1.5 tonnes each) and undoubtedly live up to their
name. To protect the net from snagging on rugged seafloors, heavy
chafing gear is attached to the bottom of the trawl net. A heavy
cable is then strung through steel balls or rubber bobbins - known
as roller gear or rockhoppers - that can measure a meter or more in
diameter (our net also has small rubber rockhoppers which are only
approximately 30 cm across). The mouths of the biggest bottom trawl
nets are as big as a football field and they are as high as a three
storey building.