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FAO Fisheries & Aquaculture - Fishing Gear Types - Beam Trawls

Beam trawls are fishing nets used to catch flatfish and shrimp in shallow waters less than 100 meters deep. They consist of a cone-shaped net attached to a long horizontal wooden or metal beam that keeps the net open. Tickler chains and bobbins are sometimes added to disturb fish and shrimp. Beam trawls are towed in pairs by medium-sized specialized vessels with powerful engines and outriggers. They are dragged close to the seabed at speeds up to 7 knots for flatfish and 2.5-3 knots for shrimp. Beam trawls can penetrate the seabed up to 8 cm deep, leaving visible tracks for up to 6 days, and their main environmental impact is removing juvenile fish and non

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180 views2 pages

FAO Fisheries & Aquaculture - Fishing Gear Types - Beam Trawls

Beam trawls are fishing nets used to catch flatfish and shrimp in shallow waters less than 100 meters deep. They consist of a cone-shaped net attached to a long horizontal wooden or metal beam that keeps the net open. Tickler chains and bobbins are sometimes added to disturb fish and shrimp. Beam trawls are towed in pairs by medium-sized specialized vessels with powerful engines and outriggers. They are dragged close to the seabed at speeds up to 7 knots for flatfish and 2.5-3 knots for shrimp. Beam trawls can penetrate the seabed up to 8 cm deep, leaving visible tracks for up to 6 days, and their main environmental impact is removing juvenile fish and non

Uploaded by

Anne
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Fisheries and

for a world without hunger Aquaculture Department

Fishing Gear Types


Beam trawls

Beam trawl

Source: FAO-Fish.Tech.Pap.222, p. 26

Characteristics
Overview A beam trawl consists of a cone-shaped body ending in a bag or codend, which retains the catch. In
these trawls the horizontal opening of the net is provided by a beam, made of wood or metal, which is up to 12
m long. The vertically opening is provided by two hoop-like trawl mostly made from steel. No hydrodynamic
forces are needed to keep a beam trawl open.heads/shoes
Plan
Principal features of a beam trawl

Accessory Equipment While fishing for flatfish the beam trawl is often equipped with tickler chains to disturb
the fish from the seabed. For operations on very rough fishing grounds they can be equipped with chain
matrices. Chain matrices are rigged between the beam and the groundrope and prevent boulders/stones from
being caught by the trawl. Shrimp beam trawls are not so heavy and have smaller mesh sizes. A bobbin of
groundrope with rubber bobbins keeps the shrimp beam trawl in contact with the bottom and gives flatfish the
opportunity to escape.
Handling Equipment Beam trawl is normally towed on outriggers, one trawl on each side.

Vessel Overview Beam trawlers are in most cases specialized medium size vessels, equipped with powerful
engines arranged with large outriggers tow two parallel beam trawls.
Fish Operation Close bottom contact is necessary for successful operation. To avoid bycatch of most juvenile
fishes selectivity devices are assembled (sieve nets, sorting grids, escape holes). While targeting flatfish the
beam trawls are towed with up to seven knots, therefore the gear is very heavy; the largest gears weight up to
10 tonnes. The towing speed for shrimp is between 2.5 and 3 knots.
Target Species Beam trawls are used mainly for flatfish and shrimp fishing.

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department


Water Area Overview This technique is very successful used in many parts of the world for catching shrimp
and flatfish normally in shallower depth than 100 meters.
Gear Environment Beam trawls are towed with very close bottom contact.
Impacts

Species Conclusions from some recent research on the physical impact of beam trawls on the sea bed are:
1) the penetration depth of a beam trawl depends on sediment characteristics and varies between 1 cm
and 8 cm; 2) the pressure force exerted on the sea floor is strongly related to towing speed and the warp
length to depth ratio; 3) beam trawls leave detectable marks on the seabed. The duration that the beam
trawl marks remain visible depends on the upper sediment layer and on the hydrographic conditions. On
the seabed consisting of medium to coarse sand, tracks have been observed to remain visible for up to 6
days. On sediments with mainly finer particles a corresponding figure of 37 hours was observed. The
major impact of beam trawl on species is capture and removal from the ecosystem of small sized
organisms (juveniles) and non-target species, which frequently are discarded at sea. Sieve netting and
selection grids together with larger codend mesh sizes are used to mitigate this problem, particularly in
shrimp trawl fisheries. Square mesh panels are used with some success to reduce capture of non targets
species in flatfish fisheries.

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department

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