Fishnet tights: raw power, style or polyfibres?
When a skipper or companys supply officer have to spend large sums of money on new nets, one of the problems they have is how do they decide which product is the best for which job? What makes things more difficult is that really the only good way to find out whether you have bought the best product for the job is by trying it out or finding someone who has spent a season at work with a particular manufacturers product.
World Fishing turned to Leopoldo Guillén, export manager of Internacional de Redes y Cuerdas, S.A. (IRC) to find out what a manufacturer has to say to buyers and users alike.
“There has been a debate of late between everyone involved in the net industry, from manufacturer to seller and of course the people who use the fishing nets. At the heart of that debate has been the question: ‘what are the most suitable fibres for using in different types of fishing?'”.
According to him, a net’s performance, during the different phases of fishing, is usually judged by the characteristics of the raw material used.
He suggests that nowadays there is a trend leading people to consider that new fibres, such as high-tenacity polyethylene, are more efficient that the traditional high-tenacity polyamide. But, how to choose?
Man on deck
He says that the sea professionals are the people who can best judge the advantages or disadvantages of the different fibres available for different types of fishing.
Of course it is not enough to say you had a good season and that the nets seem to be fine for another. Guillen says that skippers need to combine their day-to-day assessment of how a net is doing and its value “but always based on detailed and professional information supplied by the manufacturers”.
Of course, the next problem for the buyer is that there is a vast amount of product data out there, never mind all the different advertising, marketing and varying applications for this stock or that sea.
Guillén agrees that there is already vast documentation on fibre characteristics and highlights one problem. “The problem comes when the product used in the market, in ports and ships, in net factories and warehouses, does not completely fit the characteristics required by what is demanded.”
He suggests many people are unhappy with the common fact that many fibres sold in the market under certain names do not accurately match — from a physical, as well as a mechanical point of view — the characteristics that those products are supposed to have.
The user, he says, ends up feeling that the product does not work in the way it was supposed to when matched against its theoretical characteristics.
The way forward, suggests Gillén, is for everyone in the net industry to act in a responsible and transparent manner. Everyone on the producing and selling side should provide technical guarantees which back the claims for the materials and they should also identify the raw material used in the nets, he says.
If we can have guaranteed traceability from sea to plate then we should be able to have the same for the much shorter distance of needle to net.
Fortunately, the number of supplier companies offering easy access to product specifications on the Web is growing.
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