A group comprising fishermen, representatives from the NFFO and the SFF, as well as Seafish gear technologists and senior managers formally launched a new partnership with the North Sea Centre Flume Tank facility in Hirtshals in Denmark over a two-day visit earlier this week. The trip was designed to introduce the new facilities that will be made available to UK fishermen through Seafish.
Under the partnership with Norway-based organisation SINTEF, which manages the Danish tank, UK fishermen will have access, not just to the high-tech facilities in Hirtshals, but to a range of expertise and research which will complement and extend those of Seafish. The flume tank in Hirtshals was built in 1982 and was actually based on the Hull flume tank design, but is more modern and has a significantly larger capacity and viewing area.
Fred Normandale, Chairman of the NFFO, who was part of the visiting group said: “There was concern about the loss of the flume tank in Hull but having visited Hirtshals, it is clear that in fact this is a better facility. Seafish should really gain by pooling its expertise with the technologists in Denmark.”
And it's not just UK fishermen who will be beneficiaries of the partnership. Ulrik Jes Hansen, Senior Research Scientist at the tank, said that he was very pleased that the two organisations have come together in this unique way: “After Seafish contacted us and we had spoken a few times, we realised that this partnership could be way more than just offering the use of our tank. Every time I speak to the Seafish Gear Technologists Mike Montgomerie and Ken Arkley, I realise that we're all looking at similar issues – between us we have a wealth of solutions to share.” Ulrik also hopes that the British-Danish-Norwegian partnership now formed can be used to build an even wider community of technologists and scientists around Europe working together for the good of the whole industry.
Mike Montgomerie and Ken Arkley were both on the trip and offered special training and gear trials to four Fraserburgh-based fishermen. Mike commented on how the new facility will allow Seafish to support the catching sector in the future: “The Danish tank has tended to be used more by net makers for research, but by putting this knowledge with our knowledge of training fishermen, we get the advantage of both sets of expertise, and a really good tool for future training.”
Two of the visiting fishermen, brothers Garry and John Hepburn, plan to test some of the gear modifications they tried out in the tank once back in Scotland. The fact that they have identical boats means that they have the perfect set-up to prove conclusively that the modifications really are producing the results they want to see. They were both particularly interested in looking at how they might cut down drag and save on fuel, and also in making changes to the gear to avoid non-target species.
John said: “We haven't changed our gear for five years but we have lots of ideas now about how to fine-tune and do things differently. It was really useful to see things done with the middle wire and how the gear behaved, in particular the doors, which before was pure guesswork for us.” Seafish will be following Garry and John's progress over the coming months.
