TRAWL-MAKER Egersund Tral is busy with new nets for its main markets of Norway, Iceland, South America and the Bering Sea.

"Many customers see the value of new trawl gear and some want a new trawl every year, but most buy a new set of gear every second year.

They keep the older trawl as a spare, " says .

Egersund Tral's pelagic trawls are produced in sizes of up to 2600 metres, which is a trawl for fishing southern blue whiting. It has an opening of 130 metres with a 205 metre spread!

"Every pelagic trawl is custom-made, which means that we are not in a position to build up a stock. This also makes production and repairs more complex."

"Recently we have also fitted out Parlevliet en van der Plas' factory trawler Jan Maria with a 200 metre trawl, a pair of 15 sq. metre doors and a 700-tonne codend for blue whiting. They have done well with this gear.

"A factory vessel like this doesn't need a 700-tonne codend, as this is a lot more than the daily processing capacity, but the trawl fishes better with the large bag."

French operator Comapeche is also a regular customer of Egersund Tral for its surimi-producing factory trawler Joseph Roty II. She has been fishing with Egersund gear for some years.

"They are fishing with a 1600 metre trawl and they also have a 1700 metre set of gear for the summer as well."

One of the latest customers to be fitted out for blue whiting is Brennholm, the last of a series of six new trawlers built for Norwegian owners last year.

Brennholm's owners opted for two trawls - a 2112 metre net with 48 metre meshes and a 2000 metre trawl with 32 metre meshes. Also supplied were 16 sq. metre trawl doors and a set of Dyneema sweeplines.

Bjorn Havs tells FNI that most trawls are made from Egersund's ET Line rope, a three-stranded twisted rope used for all of the hand-spliced meshes in the front panels.

"We used to use Dyneema, but we have been moving away from it because of the cost. We're using Dyneema netting for some of the smaller mesh sections to reduce the twine sizes and help the trawls to tow better, using mostly netting from Utzon and van Beelen.

"There is a limit to what fishermen are willing pay for gear and, with Dyneema, that limit has been now passed."

Egersund supplies most of its Dyneema products as sweeplines or brailers, using 30 and 32 mm braided rope with a polyester cover for sweeplines and rope from either van Beelen in Holland or OTS in Norway.

"Sweeps always used to be wire rope and they would be scrapped after one season.

Now the trawlers expect to get three seasons out of a set of Dyneema sweeplines.

"It's also more convenient as the sweeplines are supplied in three lengths, so one can be taken off easily to shorten the sweeplines for fishing in summer in shallower depths."

"A set of wire sweeplines can weigh around 3.50 tonnes while, in water, Dyneema sweeplines have practically no weight at all.

They are much easier for the crew to handle and repair."

Bjorn Havs adds that a set of Dyneema sweeplines costs three to four times as much as wire, so they have to last longer. Depending on the heat treatment, they can last four times longer - but they need more careful handling on board than wire.

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Pelagic trawls are custom-made