![]() ‘Now that fuel is so expensive, we are looking all the time for ways to make the gear lighter and more efficient. Árni Dalsgaard commented that while Katrin Jóhanna’s Gannet trawl has been improved and performed well, that doesn’t mean that the search is over for improvements. ‘Without these, we get 105-110 metres, so they give us quite a big of additional height,’ he said. That’s around an extra 15 metres of spread,’ he said and added that the gear height is not affected, as the six kite sections rigged behind the headline ensure that the vertical opening is around 130 metres. ´With the Tornado doors we had a wingtip spread of 230 to 235 metres, and now at the start of the tow with the codend empty, we are seeing around 250 metres. After using Tornado doors, Katrin Jóhanna has switched to a pair of the new Twister doors. But we can see that they are better,’ he said, and added that the gear spread is also improved. We have only had them for two trips, and there are four tows in each trip – so we haven’t used them that much. They work very well and respond more quickly to changes in warp length or speed. They are smaller and there’s less weight. ‘The Tornados are very good, but the Twister doors are even better. Until recently Katrin Jóhanna’s Gannet trawl was paired with an 11m 2 set of Tornado doors, until these were switched for a 10m 2 pair of the new Twister doors. So it was just the Faroese vessels and one or two Russians.’ The Icelandic fleet was fishing capelin in January and didn’t start on blue whiting until April. We had very good fishing in January, and there weren’t so many of us on the fishing grounds. Because of the cost of fuel, we try to catch our fish as close to home as possible. We don’t have that much quota that it was worth steaming south to fish west of Ireland. ‘We try to fish as much as we can in Faroese waters. Using Vónin’s Capto rope in the belly of the trawl has made it lighter to tow. This year Katrin Jóhanna started on blue whiting in January and has had a good season, catching its whole quota in Faroese waters and landing catches to Havsbrún in Fuglafjørður, with the exception of one landing in Iceland. This is a super trawl, light to tow and good in a turn,’ he said. There’s also lighter chain in the footrope, so we use slightly heavier wing-end weights to help the trawl to sink. This has tailored the trawl even better to suit our towing power. Now now we have 100mm mesh all round in that part of the trawl and that also reduced the towing resistance. ‘The idea was that this would stop fish escaping through the top panel, but I don’t think this was a problem. Image: VóninĪs well as extending the Capto sections, the aft section has been remodelled with 100mm mesh in the last four sections, instead of having 60mm mesh in the top panels. The trawl is lighter to tow now, and it makes a difference as we only have a 3960kW engine power.’ Katrin Jóhanna has landed its blue whiting catches almost entirely to Havsbrún in Fuglafjørður. ‘The main change was that it now has Capto rope in the belly all the way down to the two-metre meshes, as before that the Capto sections only went as far as the eight-metre mesh. ‘This was a good trawl for us before, but it’s even better now with the new belly,’ Árni Dalsgaard said. At the end of last year the trawl was taken back to the net loft for some adjustments to make it lighter to tow. On blue whiting Katrin Jóhanna tows a 2300 Vónin Gannet pelagic trawl, which was delivered by Vónin three years ago. ![]() ![]() Faroese pelagic vessel Katrin Jóhanna has done well on blue whiting this year, and we caught up with skipper Árni Dalsgaard between seasons, with the fishery over for now and the vessel docked in Skagen for maintenance and a new coat of paint before heading home to switch over to mackerel gear.
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