Development and testing of energy saving trawl for fishing at Greenland

The trawl was designed in co-operation between DIFTA and Cosmos Trawl Ltd., built on Cosmos Trawl and tested in the water of Greenland by a trawler from the company North Atlantic Prawns Ltd. The netting materials used were developed and produced by N.P. Utzon Ltd. In the full scale test the energy-consumption of the new trawl has been compared with a similar trawl produced in traditional materials. The full-scale test showed the energy-consumption by the application of the new trawl is approximately 6% lower than by the trawl based on traditional materials corresponding to an annual reduction of the fuel consumption of app. 108,000 l of fuel i.e. a reduction of the fuelcost of DKK 125,000. As the additional costs by the purchase of the new trawl is 100,000 higher than the corresponding traditional trawl the pay-back time of the investment is app. 10 months on energy-savings alone. Better catch rates will reduce this period substantially. Besides the fuel-savings it was noted that the new trawl has a 5% larger horizontal as well as vertical opening which is extraordinary and indicates a better catching ability. As the full scale tests were carried out at differents grounds and times no conclusions can be drawn with regard to the catching ability. The skipper estimates however that the catching ability is at least 15 - 20% higher with the new trawl. He has therefore ordered all his new trawls with dyneema. The skipper has stated that the new trawl had a substantially better maneuvrability than the traditional trawl which is a big advantage in shrimp-fishing as this fishery has to take place in a given distance over the ground i.e. in varying depths