Electronic Supplementary Material 2
Report of telephone interview with Jan-Roger Lerbukt, owner, and Håvard Sigvaldsen, skipper, of freeze trawler Hermes, conducted February 3 and April 2, 2014.
1. What determines the length of a fishing trip- is it planned beforehand or does it depend on the fishing success? Trip length is determined by how fast the hold is filled, but also depends on logistics, e.g. the crew is changed every five weeks. When the different hauls within a trip are close that means fishing was good, more spread out hauls means fishing was not so good and they decided to steam a bit between fishing spots.
2. Is it first decided what species to target and then where to go- or the other way around? Yes, species first, then location. Test haul is done first to check out what is there, this can lead to setting the trawl deeper or more shallow or even to go to a different place. Test haul can be five minutes. The echo sounder tells what species it is and gives an indication about the size.
3. What are the main practical differences between shrimp and fish trawling, except smaller mesh size, greater depth and lower catch per effort in shrimp trawling? Shrimp trawl is higher and wider and is more often set as double, speed is 2.2-2.5 knots. Fish trawling targeting cod and haddock is done at 3.5-3.8 knots. Higher speed when trawling for saithe (4-4.5 knots). Typical shrimp haul is 5 hours and if 3 tonnes are landed that is OK. Shrimp stock more constant (less mobile and migrating). A fish haul is often shorter if the fishing is good.
4. Why are shrimp fished so far north (around Spitsbergen)? Shrimp abundance highest there and this is more important than the long distance to steam.
5. One or two trips targeting shrimp seem to occur in spring (March-April) and some in fall (Sept-Oct)- why then? Smutthullet in June is good shrimp fishing
6. How is the balance between longer steaming time against potentially larger catch per effort made? Calculations or based on experience? Probability estimation based on previous experience (but also exchange of information between vessels fishing on different locations)- if a fishing location one day away is considered e.g. it depends on how much space is left in the hold and how much faster do we expect to fill it up at the other location vs. the present one.
7. When steaming, is the vessel operated at full speed and if so how much fuel (l/h) does it burn? It is not
8. If not using the full engine power, how much of the engines power is used during steaming (%)? How much fuel does the vessel burn during steaming at this speed/effect (l/h)? Around 70-80% of the full effect is used and 500 l/h are used
9. How much fuel does it burn (l/h) during trawling? Any difference between fish and shrimp trawling? Shrimp trawling, single trawl: 450 l/h, double trawl: 550 l/h; fish trawling, single trawl 450-500 l/h, double trawl: 600 l/h (shrimp trawling predominantly done using double trawls, fish trawling using single trawls). If the echo sounder shows good fish/shrimp abundance, a single trawl is set, if not so good, double.
10. How is the fishing activity planned (for how long time ahead)? Is there any difference between the beginning of the year and the end? Does the availability of quotas affect the daily decision-making? Fishing is planned for the whole year, based on available quotas. The cod quota is the largest one (saithe and haddock quotas much smaller and they can hardly be said to be targeted but are bycatch in the cod fishery, but the cod quota could be fished in three months. It is attempted to distribute the various quotas over the year as a balance so that fishing is done when fish abundance, demand and prices are all high and supply is low. Saithe is always fished early in the year.Towards the end of the year, quotas are traded, you are allowed to buy as much as you wish, but selling quota is limited (up to 20% of cod, haddock and saithe can be sold) At the end of the year, one is sometimes forced to go searching for the species you happen to still have quota for.
11. Are quotas distributed over time in any way (e.g. weekly or monthly quotas)? No they’re not
12. Do you have any ideas how the management system could be changed in order to make it possible for Hermes to fish more efficiently (i.e. at lower environmental and economic costs)? It would be good if one was able to move quota between years, e.g. 10 % “quota bank” from the current year to next year if not fished or if fishing over quota, to be able to use some of next years quota this year. This already exists in pelagic fisheries. Otherwise, the management system is fine from their perspective.
13. Maintenance, when is it done- after each fishing trip or more seldomly? For how long is the boat typically in dock? Some minor maintenance is done every time in port, and then sometimes larger things need to be done and the vessel can be in port for one to two weeks, but that is long. Painting is done every second to third year and takes about a week.
14. When the Fisheries directorate is onboard the vessel (trip 7-11 and 18 in 2011, i.e. May 11-July 14 and Nov 1-19, 2011) does that affect the fishing pattern and decisions of where, when and what to fish? Where there any such trips in 2012? The Fisheries directorate charters the vessel and determines where and what it shall fish. The skipper is more or less like a bus driver in these cases. Previously, these trips where more “research trips” with test fishing in designated sampling spots. Now these trips have become more of “control/enforcement trips” and they go to fish where other vessels are already fishing to check them and then the fishing is good (vessels tend to aggregate where fish is abundant). The vessel gets paid by fishing on a research quota and is also paid by extra quota for this. Staff is only sometimes onboard, so these trips can be quite different.
15. When Greenland halibut or redfish is caught- is that a welcome bycatch or would you rather avoid it and only catch the target species (cod, haddock, saithe and shrimp)? Bycatch of these species is welcome extra income and for some of them (e.g. Greenland halibut and beaked redfish) the vessel has quotas so catching and landing them is fully legal. Redfish, has a relatively low value (6 NOK/kg). Juveniles are not welcome bycatch, because if caught in too large proportions, this can close a fishing area (there is a limit of No. of juveniles per kg shrimp).
16. Is it possible to plan/avoid this type of bycatch of other species? To some degree, by experience and test hauls, also both species are at large depths.
17. Trip 17 in 2012 (November 19-25, fishing close to Kvitøya and Isfjorden). What was special about this trip? This was one of the “research trips” and not one of the efficient ones, it involved a lot of steaming and little fishing (very low catch).
18. What is the expected life time of the vessel? 30-50 years
19. What is the expected life time of the trawl? Fish trawl one year (used all year), shrimp trawl three years (used only part of the year). Another explanation for longer life time of shrimp trawl is that it is use don flat bottoms, like sand and clay, while the fish trawl is used on rougher bottom types, more uneven and partly hard bottom.
20. Trip 11 in 2012 was unusual in that it only landed cod, haddock and saithe- is this correct and is there an explanation? It is correct (they can see it in their data aswell) but they don’t have an explanation for it, it was a coincidence.
21. Trip 12 in 2012 was unusual in that it targeted shrimp, but also landed other species (other shrimp trips only landed shrimp)- what is the explanation? They started fishing shrimp but the fishing was not good and there were only a few days left until the vessel was contracted by the Fisheries Directorate for a research trip, so they chose to fill up the hold with saithe before going in. The research trip following (Trip 13) was the one landing a high proportion of redfish.
22. Do you use a recapture device (oppsamlingspose) to re-capture the big fish sorted out by the sorting grid in the shrimp trawl? No, they don’t.
23. What do the various trawl models provided represent- are they shrimp of fish trawls and single or double? All are fish trawls and the larger the number, the larger the trawl.
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