The recent international fisheries conference at the Kaliningrad technical university gave attendees the rare opportunity to visit Fishering Sevice, a local, family-owned company and manufacturer of some of the world’s largest trawls, reports Menakhem Ben-Yami .
The company, which employs more than 140 workers, recently constructed a giant midwater trawl of 2,600 metres in mouth circumference for Icelandic owners.
Allegedly, Russia's biggest net manufacturer, Fishering is producing around 200 pelagic trawls each year. Its designs are tested in the local flume tank, which is operated by the state-owned MarinPO Institute and also used by several non-Russian gear manufacturers.
For several years Fishering has been selling its trawls to clients nationally, as well as internationally to Iceland, The Netherlands, Spain, Chile, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa and Latvia.
The trawls are of Russian design and constructed of materials that include the ultra-strong Dyneema twines.
Its main innovations include hexagonal meshes around the net’s mouth and a 'kite' on the headline which is claimed to provide an extra 2mt of hydrodynamic lift without increasing drag.
According to Fishering manager Dimitri Fedorov, this gear is very economical in terms of power and fuel consumption.
The July issue of World Fishing & Aquaculture will have more from Menakhem Ben-Yami and the Kaliningrad conference.
