Australian Triple Rig Sees 10% Increase With Notus

Australian Triple Rig Sees 10% Increase With Notus

Notus has provided trawl monitoring solutions for every type of trawl. The technology has been specifically developed for those vessels multi rig trawling as EACH individual net for twin, triple and quad rigs is monitored. Recently, Shark Bay Seafoods of South Fremantle, Australia installed a Notus Trawlmaster on its deep-water triple rig trawler. The Captain and Fleet Manager seen an immediate payback for the system.

Shark Bay Seafoods operates a fleet of trawlers targeting scampi (deep water), prawns and fish. They installed a Notus Trawlmaster on their triple rig scampi vessel to wirelessly monitor: the spread on each net, door angle and warp/bridal lengths. As the vessel was not dry-docking for some time, a towed hydrophone in a paravane was provided.

The FV Striker targets scampi in 400-500 m depths off Australia and shoots approximately 650 fa of warp. The bottom is typically muddy and a triple trawl configuration is used. They fish two trawl warps using splits that go to two outside doors and two inside skids (or sleds). A typical sensor is seen one sensor in each door and two sensors in each skid.

Simon Little, Fleet Manager at Shark Bay Seafoods kept a close eye on his return from investing in Notus. Simon says “scampi catch has increased 10% due to the Notus sensors and fuel is down 8-9% per trip.” Captain Stormy and Simon mainly attribute these results from constantly being able to monitor the gear during the entire tow.

A major issue in the fishery is mudding up. The footgear goes into the mud and the trawls eventually become blocked. Simon says with Notus “you can react straight away.” As soon as the gear starts to mud up, extra throttle is supplied which brings the trawls back to optimal fishing. The speed of the vessel is constantly adjusted to ensure the gear is going correctly. Simon says, “you start at 2.9 and then you might go down to 2.5 and up to 3.3, all during the same tow.”

This is another perfect example of the main Notus advantage: fish by spread NOT by speed.

The FV Striker also uses Notus in their quad rig prawn trawling in Western Australia.