The Rock-Hoppers
In case you are wondering, these ‘wheels’ stop a fishing boat’s trawl net getting caught on rocks on the sea bed.
Richard Broom Photography
Photographs, Video and Stuff
In case you are wondering, these ‘wheels’ stop a fishing boat’s trawl net getting caught on rocks on the sea bed.
10 Responses to “The Rock-Hoppers”
Interesting photo, do the round rubber things keep the net from snagging the bottom?
They do. The trawl net is dragged behind the trawler (sometimes two at a time, side by side) and the hoppers bounce over the rocks somehow. Floats keep the mouth of the net open and sonar devices tell the skipper where the fish are. The poor fish don’t stand much a chance really.
Thanks for the explanation, Richard. You are right, poor fish are doomed to a hot skillet and butter! 😍
Indeed. We read recently that huge Russian trawlers are coming into our waters and vacuuming all the fish up. It would appear our Russian cousins don’t care about fish stock conservation. If this continues, there will be no fish for anyone. Human greed sometimes knows no bounds.
Your government needs to get to work on that, it’s so wrong!!
Some home! I understand we have only two active fishery protection vessels……and one of those is broken! Because the UK coastline is a bit crinkly, it measures around 20,000 miles. That’s a lot of ocean to patrol. All UK commercial craft are fitted with a system called AIS and so you can see see where they are live, online: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-2.6/centery:57.7/zoom:9 I can’t help wondering if the Russian trawler folk turn their AIS systems off so they become invisible. Nothing would surprise me!
Never trust a Russian!
Wow, that’s an amazing map!!
Careful John. They’ll come after you with a poisoned umbrella!
It’s remarkably clever as is GPS. When I was at sea (about 300 years ago), the skippers on my first few ships still used sextants. I’m not sure if mariners are still trained how to use them.