NesNet is a new company run by Lárus Thór Pálmason, a netmaker and fishing gear technology lecturer at the Fjölbrautaskóli Sudurnesja (FS) college in Iceland.
NesNet operates closely with the college and its fledgling international department ISCFT to run training courses in fishing technology.
"As NesNet we have taken over some of the work that the college was doing," Lárus Thór Pálmason says.
"As an educational institution, it's not straightforward for FS to run educational schemes outside Iceland, so this work has been devolved to NesNet to run on ISCFT's and FS's behalf," he comments.
So far, ISCFT and NesNet have combined to hold a series of courses, so far mostly for Dutch and French fishermen who are keen to acquire skills relating to seine net fishing now that this low-fuel, high-quality method is becoming more widespread.
"Fly shooting is a method of seine netting that has been used in Iceland for many years and it has never gone out of fashion here so there is an extensive pool of experience and expertise here that we can draw on," Mr Pálmason says. “It was good timing that there was so much interest in this just as ISCFT was getting going and we have had a lot of interest from Europe. So far we have had several groups of Dutch and French fishermen who have been here. Normally we have them here for four days, which includes lectures from netmakers and skippers, a session in the mini-flume tank to test different gear models and a day at sea with a local fly shooter.”
He comments that while this depends on factors such as weather and quotas, it has so far always been possible to arrange a day at sea, and this has often been so popular that some of those attending the courses have opted to have a second day at sea.
The mini-flume tank that ISCFT operates in the FS college is a new way of approaching this kind of gear testing.
“It’s been used very successfully by smaller netmakers to test gear models, but it’s primarily a training tool for netmakers and ship’s officers,” said Mr Pálmason. “We regularly run 5-day training courses that help netmakers and skippers build gear models from their own designs that they can then test in the tank. Some of them have made some real improvements to their gear using this and they tell us that it gives them a real insight into the way their fishing gear performs.”
