Saving time and money

"It is basically very simple and works well and things go faster and easier," says Hans Pauli Hansen, a fisherman from Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, who has an Auto Line System installed aboard his fishing boat, Carina 2.

During the development of the Auto Line System, Oilwind worked closely with Faroese line fishermen who willingly contributed their experiences. One of them was Mr Hansen, who has a 40 foot high steel boat. After using the system for a while, he says he could not dream of going back to the old way of line fishing. "My experience is that the Auto Line System saves both time and money, and it has been of big importance for optimal fishing", he said.

Before he installed the Auto Line System aboard Carina 2, Mr Hansen needed to have two men on land to prepare the lines, and for each line he had to pay 125 kroner - the total cost amounting to $86,000 per 100 fishing days if he set out 40 lines. Now it is all handled by the system onboard, because the bait is put on the hooks at the same time as the line goes out.

Many advantages

"There are also time savings onboard, as the system handles the release of the line and it is much easier to get the line in again than it was before. Furthermore, we have almost no problems with the line getting tangled, so the whole process becomes much less problematic than before. When I want to set out 40 lines, it takes just under two hours' with a speed of 5-6 knots. When the line is hauled in again, I can manage 5-6 lines per hour and there are about 300 hooks on each line," says Mr Hansen. "The Auto Line System is also much cleaner than the traditional way. It is a huge win, as even with many lines at once all the work can be done by one man onboard - also economising on space, as the boxes with lines can be easily stacked up. Perhaps the biggest difference is that we always use fresh bait because we don’t have to use frozen bait anymore, which gives worse fishing. So with Auto Line System you have the opportunity and potential to optimise fishing in all areas."

Fewer emissions

In the traditional way a fisherman often has lines for several days standing in an area, which is just as big as the shed where the lines are prepared. However, now there is only a platform with bait in the refrigeration department.

Mr Hansen has usually lines for 3-4 days in stock, so if the weather is good for a couple of days, he does not have to be on land repairing the lines he has used. Instead he repairs the lines when the weather is bad.

"In the traditional way having a freezer can incur huge costs, so now instead of each boat having its own freezer, several boats can share one freezer. This, of course, saves a lot of money," says Mr Hansen. He also says that the Auto Line System provides a more environmentally sound management of fisheries, especially because there are fewer CO2 emissions.

He thinks that Oilwind's system is very simple to get started with, although in the beginning one has to get used to many things being done in a different way. "But on the whole it is a very simple and logical process, and from a common sense standpoint, I think this is the way forward for line fishing in the coming years," he concludes.