TRAWLING SKIMMER

摘要

A method and system for efficient and eco-friendly shrimp skimmer trawling by a trawling vessel with a trawl net, skimmer booms, net arms, and buoyantly adjustable rollers to maintain trawl net height and net opening without damage to the ocean floor allowing for systematic and frequent retrieval of catch while continuing trawling operations in intervals short enough to prevent death of by-catch and endangered species and where the system is fully storable on trailerable trawling vessels for maintenance of allowable highway heights. The system and method has the upper edge of the trawl net held above the ocean surface while the trawling vessel moves forward.

主权项

1. An environmentally friendly and fully assembled skimming trawl system to minimize the destructive effects of bottom trawling for use in a body of water having a surface and a bottom, where the system comprises:
a) a trawling vessel with a bow and a stern, a right side and a left side, a deck, and a fantail at the stern: b) a net having a forward end and an aft end with a net mouth on the forward end, a bag at the aft end, a bag loop forward of the bag, and a tagline for closing the bag and lifting the bag; c) right and left skimmer booms with inboard and outboard ends, with the inboard ends pivoting on the fantail at the stern of the trawling vessel; d) right and left net arms holding the net mouth in a substantially rectangular opening, each net arm having a bottom end and an upper end, each upper end fixed to the outboard end of the respective right and left skimmer booms; e) right and left rollers each having a right and left end with an access plug in one or both of the ends of each roller to allow filling the rollers fully or partially with water to adjust the buoyancy of each roller, each roller mounted in a gimbal for rolling on the bottom of the body of water, each gimbal mounted respectively at the bottom end of the respective right and left net arms; f) a boom mast with right and left cable pulleys for raising and lowering the skimmer booms and a pulley for operating the tagline, and; g) a forward boom storage frame mounted on the trawling vessel deck in proximity of the bow with right and left support hooks for storing without disassembly the right and left skimmer booms with attached net arms, rollers and net for transit on water or on a trailer.