MARITIEM has supplied Afrika with a set of five nylon pelagic trawls made to four designs.

Her blue whiting trawl has a 1680 metre circumference with a maximum mesh size of 28 metres in the fore panels, while the wide body horse mackerel trawl has a 1480 metre fishing circle.

Maritiem's Erik de Graaf explains that these are standard pattern trawls, much the same as gear used by the rest of the fleet.

However, as Afrika is to operate partly in tropical waters, two 1260 metre sardinella trawls are carried, along with a 940 metre shallow water trawl which has a maximum mesh size of 10 metres.

"These trawls were all manufactured after discussions between ourselves and Skipper Maart van Rijn," Erik de Graaf tells FNI.

The sardinella trawls are relatively small, but made to endure high strains. The Dutch fleet is fishing close to the surface at speeds of up to 6.5 knots, turning fast and sharply.

"The skipper didn't want to go too big with his trawls. The old approach of towing a bigger trawl to catch more is a thing of the past. Emphasis is much more on catching top quality fish, taking smaller and more manageable amounts which can be processed quickly. He wanted to see strength in the trawls for Mauretania, and for the trawls to be small and manoeuvrable."

Two trawls - the 940 metre trawl and one of the 1260 metre sardinella trawls - have been made in black material. Erik de Graaf comments that there have been trials in European waters with different colours for netting, but this has not been tried in west African waters before.

"This is an experiment to see the response of the fish to the black colour," he says.

Maritiem has also supplied four brailers as well as all of the trawl hardware, including bridles, shackles, strops, connectors, weights and spare parts, as well as the 4000 metres of Bridon Dyform 40 mm warp for each main drum.

Maritiem also provided Afrika with her galley equipment and food for the first trip.

Afrika has two sets of trawl doors on board: from NETS in the USA and a 12 sq. metre Thyboron type 8 pelagic door.

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