Testing of technical parameters of bottom trawls designed for fishing in the Adriatc Sea

Abstract

       The bottom trawls known as tartana are still used in Croatian marine fisheries for demersal fish and other bottom organisms. This name, retained by now, referred once to a type of sailing boat towing the nets of the same name used for demersal fishing. Apart from the Adriatic this net is now used throughout the Mediterranean.

       Tartana is a bottom trawl characterized by small vertical spread and square and bottom construction different from that of bottom trawls, used for chub mackerel fishing and fishing of some other bottom species in other seas. The square is not of a single conical webbing but a triangular webbing (wedge) is inserted. Headline bosom makes the base of this triangle. A similar wedge is inserted to the bottom, the base of which is groundrope bosom together making the bottom of tartana belly.

       Since the recent years have seen an increased interest for bottom trawling, shown by a sudden increase in the number of fishing vessels used for this fishing (C e t i n i ć ,1989) it has become necessary to promote the construction of these nets and to adapt them to the requirements of the Adriatic trawl fishing. The testing the body of model bottom trawls, designed for fishing in the Adriatic, having been successfully accomplished N o w a k o w s k i  et al. (1992) two prototype bottom trawls for fishing with trawlers of 200-250 kW (270-340 HP) have been built. These two nets, along with already used tartana, are the subject of our study.