Beam trawling

Beam trawling is the fishing method practised by the vast majority of the fleet in the Netherlands.

Fishing specifications

Beam trawling takes place mainly in the North Sea, the English Channel, the Irish Sea, the Bay of Biscay and the Skagerrak. Beam trawling mainly targets the flatfish species plaice, sole, dab, turbot and brill. It also produces by-catches of cod, skate, whiting, gurnard, mullet, monkfish, lemon sole and whelk, among others.

Fishing technique

Beam trawling is a very old form of fishing. Already centuries ago, people fished with various types of nets held open by means of a sturdy tree trunk. Hence the name beam trawl. The dredge is the trawl net. Nowadays, the tree trunk has given way to a long steel pipe. At the ends of this, so-called slippers are attached to ensure that the beam and the net remain at the desired height above the seabed, thus reducing resistance with the seabed at the same time.

Attached to the shoes are the upper and lower tendons to which the net is attached. Also attached to the shoes are several chains that drag over the seabed in front of the footrope and serve to startle the flatfish from the sand. The flatfish burrow into the sand and when they startle they come out of the ground and end up in the net. The chains are therefore called wake-up chains. The weight of the chains is 25 procent of the total gear weight.

In beam trawling, a net hangs in the water from the booms on both port and starboard sides of the cutter. Thus, two nets are fished simultaneously. During fishing, the booms are positioned horizontally above the water

Engine power

Beam trawling is successful because the technology allows heavy tickler chains. With a net held open by shearboards, the number of ticklers is limited; if too many or heavier ticklers are used, the net opening becomes smaller and the catch drops. The beam trawl does not have this disadvantage.
The catch of sole in particular clearly increases when using a larger number of tickler chains.

Because more fishing can be done with heavier gear, the Dutch cutter fleet has in the past started to fish with more powerful vessels and therefore also with heavier gear.

Photo: © Ecomare, Oscar Bos