The contact drag of towed demersal fishing gear components

The contact demersal towed fishing gears make with the seabed can lead to penetration of the substrate, lateral displacement of the sediment and a pressure field transmitted through the sediment. It will also contribute to the overall drag of the fishing gear. Consequently, there can be environmental effects such as habitat alteration and benthic mortality, and impacts to the fuel efficiency of the fishing operation which will affect emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides and greenhouse gases such as CO₂. Here we present the results of experimental trials that measure the contact drag of a range of elements that represent some of the components of towed demersal gears that are in contact with the seabed.

We show that the contact drag of the gear components depends on their weight, geometry, the type of sediment on which they are towed and whether they are rolling or not. As expected, the contact drag of each gear component increases as its weight increases and the drag of fixed elements is greater than that of the rolling ones. The dependence on aspect ratio is more complex and the drag (per unit area) of narrow cylinders is less than that of wider ones when they roll on the finer sediment or are fixed (not permitted to roll) on the coarser sediment. When they roll on the coarse sediment there is no dependence on aspect ratio. Our results also suggest that fixed components may penetrate the seabed to a lesser depth when they are towed at higher speeds but when they roll there is no such relationship.