Development of new energy-saving trawl-net for Russia

These trawls were developed in co-operation between the Danish netmaker Cosmos Trawl, the Danish Institute for Fisheries Technology and Aquaculture, the two largest shipowners in Murmansk and the independant design institute Trawl Center and the models tested in the flume-tank in Hirtshals. On the basis of the results of model tests two full scale trawls were built and tested in the North Atlantic. The results showed that a change in materials alone reduced energy-consumption by 30%, while change in design and materials reduced energy consumption per unit of catch by 80% to one fifth of the energy consumption per unit of catch as compared to a traditional russian trawl, through a combination of less energy consumption per hour and higher catch-rates. It is expected that the new trawl will have a considerably longer economic life than the traditional trawls