Weeks of Catch-up Part 1: Foulweather Trawling

Hey Guys! As I was telling you in my last blog, part of our Marine Policy section was a trip to talk with local fishermen and their wives about their views on marine conservation and policy. To do this we paid a visit to a local Oregon company named Foulweather Trawl. This company manufactures fishing nets, cord, and twine and also does a number of fishing equipment repair. The owner and two wives of local fisherman gave us a tour of the facility, took us out to their husband's boats, and answered LOADS of questions from us.

My roommate Christine is standing by one of the nets they manufacture. They round grate you see in the middle is similar to a TED (turtle exclusion device). Because this net is used for shrimp, the shrimp can fit through the grate and into the end of the net (called the codend, remember?) anything bigger than a shrimp hits the grate and slides up, out of the net through a hole in the top.

Foulweather Trawling also taught us how to mend nets on our own. Here Kristen and I are testing it out ourselves, but some how I think our method could improve a bit. It sewing nets is fun for you though, you can do an unpaid internship of mending nets everyday for free (fun huh?).

One of the most remarkable things about seeing the nets was the size. Our tiny research trawl looked plenty big, but nets being set out to repair that are actually used on the coast were laid out over the entire parking lot. For example, remember the codend, the little funnel at the end of the net? This is a photo of the codend ALONE, no net attached. This is not a photo trick, the end of the net actually goes from the camera all the way out to the white van. To get an idea of how big the entire net is look at the diagram of a net from one of my old blogs and see where the codend actually is.

The next photo is of one of the trawling boats that we visited. We got a kick out of this guy because he was really excited about showing us "hookers" and "flashers", yeah we know its a fishing term, but that grade school humor never really seems to go away. One of the most interesting things about this visit was the reaction to Kulongoski's efforts to create a National Marine Sanctuary in Oregon. The fisherman said that they were in total support and that they cared about the health and population of the fish because they were their living. In the end though it was the answer that I expected, "just don't put them anywhere we fish." Is there anywhere that the "Not in my backyard" slogan can't go?