The pontoon trap: Description and function of a seal-safe trap-net

Abstract

During recent decades almost all kinds of coastal fishery in the Baltic have been hit hard by seal interference, causing catch losses and gear damage among other negative effects. To solve this problem a new fish chamber was developed in the late 1990s. It has a double wall of firmly stretched net panels of the super-strong polyethylene material Dyneema and is called pontoon fish chamber. Since the introduction a number of positive effects of this chamber have been observed. A majority of the fishermen using the pontoon fish chamber are very satisfied with it and at the time of writing, over 300 such fish chambers are in use in Sweden. This paper describes the construction and operation of the fish chamber, some preliminary results on fishing efficiency and its reception by fishermen.