Pair trawling is becoming more popular in Northern Europe, with over 25 vessels pair trawling in the Faeroes. Many of these have chosen Scantrol’s iSYM PairLink to control and monitor the trawl winches.
According to Scantrol, this method of fishing saves at least 30% in fuel and is more environmentally friendly compared with regular demersal trawling. This is because the trawl door is eliminated, reducing damage to the sea bottom.
The first Scottish investment in pair trawling in recent years has been made by Lunar Fishing Company Ltd. The company is investing in two new trawl vessels to replace “Ocean Harvest” and “Harvester”. Both 28m fishing vessels will be pair trawling for cod and haddock off the coast of Scotland.
The vessels are currently under construction at Karstensen’s Shipyard in Denmark and delivery is scheduled for spring 2008.
The company has selected Scantrol’s iSYM PairLink as both vessel’s autotrawl system. Additionally, the vessels will be equipped with iSPOOL, an electronic wire spooling system.
Following the success of pair trawl system in the Faeroe Islands and Iceland, Helge Hammersland, managing director of Scantrol, is keen to take on Scotland. “PairLink, our pair trawl system, is unique in that it links the two vessels together with a radio link that enables the skipper of the master vessel to control both vessels’ navigation, pitch and speed, in addition to the trawl’s wire length and tension,” says Hammersland. “This optimises fuel consumption and keeps a symmetrical trawl, which provide total catch efficiency.”
A registered trademark of Scantrol, iSYM’s unique Symmetry Control® feature utilises signals from a Scanmar symmetry sensor in the trawl to adjust the wires’ length and tension to ensure that the trawl is always symmetrical. This means that the water flows directly into the trawl, which maximises catch.
