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From: Faure, Marin (no email)
Date: Wed Oct 01 2003 - 12:48:10 EDT
> >This is only half the history of recreational trawlering, the one
that started in North America. In Europe, where Romsdal Shipbuilders
launched its first trawler yacht in1958, the approach was, one could
say,
Driven by North Sea conditions. Thus, Romsdals, Malahades and all their
cousins have pilothouses further aft and decks and holds forward.
I suppose I should have clarified in my post that I was talking
about the "North American" type working trawler design. The classic
European trawler design is as George describes it. However, on a trip
to
northwestern Scotland earlier this year, in the fishing town of
Mallaig, while there were a few examples of the pilot-house-aft, working
deck
forward type of fishing boats in the harbor, most of the working
boats were of the pilot-house-forward design. These boats were rigged to
fish for a variety of things, from langoustines (sp?) which in
appearance
are a cross between a Maine lobster and a crayfish, scallops, and the
(few) species of commercially viable fish in the area.
Even in the Pacific Northwest, the "north sea" trawler layout has
been used in some boats. But I think the point is that the recreational
trawler's basic lines and layout can be traced back to working
fishing boats of one sort or another.
Trawling itself, if I understand it correctly, is a procedure by
which a large, sack-like net is dragged along or just above the seabed.
The
mouth of the net is held open by "trawl doors" or "boards," large,
weighted panels that use their forward motion through the water to
hold the mouth of the "sack" open. The net itself, or in some cases an
arrangement of boards and chains, stir up the fish or scallops or
whatever off the bottom at which point they are scooped in by the
net.
I've been told that in terms of the seabed environment, this is a
pretty unfriendly fishing method as it's somewhat indiscriminate in what
it caches
and it can be very damaging to the sea floor. I've been told
by divers who have been down to the bottom in areas where trawling is
done that the sea floor looks like a desert, not a living thing in
sight,
everything bulldozed level, with the only features being the
criss-cross marks of the trawl gear.
That's one opinion. I'm sure if you talked to commercial trawlermen,
or fisheries people you'd get a different picture.
______________________________
C. Marin Faure
36' Grand Banks "La Perouse"
Bellingham, Washington
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