Beam trawl query

I've been asked to jot a few notes on commercial fishing traditions for a trade magazine in the UK. In it I will attempt to compare methods adopted in other countries.
Now the question is - can any of you 'old' trawlermen/commercial fisher tell me if the 'beam trawl' (outlawed in the UK) is still used elsewhere.

 

Did a little surfin. The latest I found so far was 1996. Still listed the Brits.

The Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium were all listed at this time. Most boats were Dutch owned, even if operating under another flag.

IN the past I commercially purse seined for salmon in AK. Been out helping a Newfie friend for snow crab & lobster. Been on salmon trollers, and subsistence gill-netted for Char, and Sea Run Brown Trout with the Inuit on the Labrador Coast.

I say all that to show I have no problem with harvesting the Sea. But use is one thing, and abuse another. That type of trawling seems so indiscriminant & destructive! It reminds me of "clearcutting" the Sea.

Went off on a tangent there.

Seemed like alot of basic info when I Googled.

Take care Berg.

TGoz

 

Thanks Tim. Must check out the UK end with a couple of 'elderly' contacts. Not that I doubt you. Twenty years since I left the game - but towards the end of the 80's we got a curt note from the UK Board of Trade (bloody bureacrats, never left their desks overlooking the Thames) pointing out that beam trawls 'crushed all in their path - and destroyed mud-dwelling ocean creatures - prawns, shrimps, etc etc.' True of course, so those beamers of my acquaintance switched to other forms. But it may have been voluntary. Left the UK at about that time - so never really went too deeply into the question.

Myself I tried quite a few methods, ring-netting, gill-netting straight trawls etc. Dropped some creels, bit of longlining and squid jigging. Unfortunately the North Sea and Atlantic on the UK side were 'fished out'.
Thanks again. Yours aye Berg

 

True fishermen will always find a way.

Those beam trawls I saw on the web sure were handsome vessels. Some reminded me of very large expedition type motoryachts.

I think if anyone would still be at that fishery it would be the Dutch.

The one site said, before the ban, that your kin were becoming more involved.

Speaking of which, though half my blood is English, if I could visit anywhere in the area, it would be the Scottish Highlands & Fiords. The Aran Islands off Ireland have always had a draw on me also.

Tim

 

Trouble was Tim some of the big beams would weigh up to 8/10 tons with a mouth of fifty feet. Efficient in their way - but imagine what that weight, rolling across the ocean floor, would do to the marine ecology.
One of the main problems (and here I'm probably biased) in the North Sea, North Atlantic was the formation Common Market. Before that the 'traditional' blue water fishing nations had their 'own' patches where they'd fished for generations, and for the most part kept to them. Sensible sized mesh allowing future generations of smaller fish to swim through. Ocean husbandry if you like. But come the Common Market nations which had never ventured far from the shore moved in. Small mesh, literally stripping the sea. We'd frequently go into port over a 'slick' of dead, undersized, unmarketable fish discarded by the 'new' fleets.

 

Aye Bergalia mon the beam is alive and well in the UK! not widespread true but alive it certainly is!

After your comments about the Common Market (with which I heartly agree!) I presume that any reference to the British in Iceland is to be ignored (where were you in the sixties and seventies?)

Following on from that I sure in the old days you'd have had the occasional 'fry' from the 'pussers' system - a live firing exercise from the mortars (Mk 10) tended to produce that sort of thing but was very destructive

 

lookee here, what a lovely ship, note her sheer, biggest side trawler built, one of her water tanks held the best Ru Vodka, (no joke)

 

http://www.rossrevenge.co.uk/trawl/trawling.htm

there you are max, very interesting

 

You mean like this with on pole on each side?
I haven't seen them in Norway or Iceland the last years
But in the summer I see a lot of really small shrimp trawlers with the gear on one side, not over the stern.

 

In France and Spain is yet used this system, as far as I know, although dissapearing. In Galicia I do not know of pair trawlers anymore.
More modern designs tend to be not just for pair trawling, but also for single trawling.

 

This site says there were 200 beam trawlers in 2000 in British Columbia.
http://www.westcoastaquatic.ca/fisheries_overview.htm
Around here, for shrimp,they use the ''otter trawl'', I guess you call it, with big, weighted doors to keep the net open. I believe stretched across in front of the mouth is a heavy chain that drags along the bottom that makes the shrimp jump up off the bottom so the net doesn't go over the top of them and miss them. It would seem to serve the same purpose as the beam, as far as sweeping the bottom clean of anything ecologically usefull. A lot of bycatch. They used to catch/kill a lot of sea turtles but now they have to have TED's, Turtle Excluder Devices, which also lets out some shrimp. There's talk now of bycatch excluders also. Shrimping is a dieing industry here, not from lack of 'scrimp', but regulations, fuel prices and foreign competition from pond raised shrimp. A lot of boats for sale, cheap. Sam

 

Gentlemen, and that is what I consider you to be, I am overwhelmed by your response. (I’ll ensure that credit is given when the article is finally done - may even offer it on the forum ‘A soporific thread...’ Bear with me while I deal with your points.

Walrus, I assume you are referring to the alleged and grossly hyped ‘Cod Wars.’
Never really happened old son. Mainly a storm in a journalist’s beer glass. Obviously with rough weather, tight shoaling fish there was the odd ‘bump’ among ships. But always followed with profuse apologies - and drinks all round at a later date.
The main point of contention was the intrusion of ‘off-comers’ - the ‘new southern’ fleets (quick cash - and retire) muscling in on what had for many generations been the ‘home patch’ of the UK, Scandinavia and even Canadian boats. Especially when they worked with ‘unfair gear’ (small mesh again).
As with most we were frequently ‘boarded’ by Fishery Patrol crews. We could have had a hold full of mermaids for all they cared- without exception they were simply seeking a box of fresh fish for the cook.

Lazeyjack - your tale of the Vodka ballast comes as no surprise. years back I was invited aboard the Krupps Steel tall-ship used for training junior executives. After a splendid dinner I was invited to examine the ballast. As the floorboards slid back I observed case upon case upon case of good German wine.


Raggi, succinct as ever - But I think there is some confusion here over ‘descriptions’ - probably a ‘local’ thing, but the boat in your illustration is what I would call a ‘wing trawler.’ Light nets used for smaller catches - shrimp, prawn, sprats and sardine (but none-the-less a valid and important catch.)

The beams I refer to more resemble the description given by SamSam. A wide stirrup shaped net - the mouth held open at the base by a heavy beam - an axle of iron wheels. Not unlike a necklace on a flat surface. And as SamSam says: “ sweeping the bottom clean of anything ecologically useful. A lot of bycatch.” Not only that the weight of the beam - often in the region of ten tons crushes those beasties which burrow in the mud...destroying the initial food-chain.
Again to quote SamSam “Shrimping is a dieing industry here...”
In Scotland the ‘voluntary’ move against ‘beam trawls’ began in the 1980’s when the Norwegian Prawn (Nephrops) boats found their catches drastically cut. Investigations proved that it was the beams which were crushing their habitat, the beast and its spawn.


Guillermo - your picture reminds me of purse-seiner colleagues who teamed up to drag the heavy beams. A third boat was needed to manoeuvre between the ‘work’ pair to accept the haul. This was both wasteful in effort and caused much dissent in eventual sharing the catch.
Incidentally many of these beams were so large and heavy that they seldom came ashore, instead being parked just offshore and marked with bouys - adding to the hazards for other local traffic. As though fishcages weren’t enough....

But again gentlemen, I am indebted to your knowledge, experience, and anecdote. I just knew I’d come to the right place. - yours aye, bergalia

 

YES I realised I had mistaken BEAM for Side, I have actually never heard of a BEAM trawl

 

Thanks Stu, yes I realised once I'd written it that it could cause confusion. But as I say - local names for local uses. Typical of talk among tight groups of 'specialists'. Each knows what is being referred to - yet to the outsider it can appear a 'foreign' language and misunderstanding occur - hence with Raggi's offering. Raggi was correct - in your and his interpretation, this was a 'beam (side) trawler.' Mine was beam, as in long supporting structure.
But hell - all the above was great. And thanks again to you all.

 

Oh! You were meaning trawling a net opened by a beam! Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Beam trawling is forbidden in Spain with the only exception (known to me) of some very little boats in Galicia called 'bous de vara' mainly used to catch crabs and dropped mussels between the mussel rafts.

Cheers.