Image: Optitog / FIS

Fishing with light – the next generation

Based within the Iceland Ocean Cluster on the quayside in Reykjavík, start-up company Optitog has been making steady progress in developing new concepts of shrimp gear to improve the profitability of this fuel-heavy fishery, while also reducing by-catch levels.

Optitog has been developing its own Virtual Trawl, which uses patented light technology to herd Pandalus borealis off the seabed and into the trawl. Additionally, the development aim is to deliver a trawl system fitted with sensors and a gear-mounted computer that automatically controls the towing vessel’s winches to keep the fishing gear in optimum position.

Photo: Optitog

A steerable foil is used to steer the fishing gear to maintain the required height above the seabed.

“That’s being kept secret,” said Optitog’s Halla Jónsdóttir, when asked about the specifics of the lighting rig that encourages shrimp to jump or swim into the trawl – but the theory that testing has confirmed is that shrimp will jump or swim in a certain direction when presented with a line or wall of light and herded into the trawl.

So far, the lights system has been trialled with conventional trawl gear on board Icelandic shrimp trawler Klakkur, and Optitog is also working with fishing companies in Norway and the Faroe Islands as it aims to make a proprietary system a reality – dispensing with trawl doors to reduce towing resistance and therefore fuel consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases per kilo of catch landed.

“We have been tinkering with this for a while and are getting on top of it now as we’re perfecting the design,” she said. “We have done tests with the Virtual Trawl and the conclusion of these trials was very much that this is something that needs to be continued.”

Greener fishing

By skimming a few centimetres above the seabed to scoop up shrimp rooted out of the ground by the lights, Optitog’s trawl has the big advantage of having less than 0.5% ground contact, a serious point in its favour in a commercial environment in which disturbance of the seabed habitat is already a major consideration.

This approach provides an alternative that could get around bottom trawling closures that would affect trawlers towing conventional gear.

“Although we have only tested this so far on Pandalus borealis, we’re looking at the options for using this approach for other species,” Jónsdóttir said, adding that testing this in the shrimp fishery has its advantages, as the high numbers of shrimp per square metre of ground covered make codifying results more precise.

“We can see that it won’t be effective for species such as halibut that dig themselves into the seabed, but there are indications that it could be an efficient catching method for other species. We’d really like to try it for langoustines.”

Last year Optitog signed a distribution agreement with Norwegian company Evotec, which aims to make this new shrimp catching system more widely available.

“This is an interesting technology for us, and we see this as a big game-changer,” said Evotec’s Håkon Woldsund.

“This fits in well with what Evotec is doing – the name stands for Environmental Technology – and we aim to be an important part of this and supporting customers. We know it works, and now we’re going to make it work even better.”

Tjaldtangi, which operates shrimp trawler Klakkur, the Marine Research Institute, the University of Reykjavík, IceTec, the Iceland Ocean Cluster and the Icelandic Research Fund have all supported Optitog’s work.

Fuente: WorldFishing

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