SURROUND NETS

SURROUNDING NET
• The manner of capture is to surround the fish
not only from the side but also from beneath,
thus permitting the capture of fish over very
deep waters by preventing their escape into the
depths
• Surrounding net or round haul net.
• Long wall of webbing that surround a school
of fish from below & sides to prevent their
escape.
• Classification of Surrounding nets:
• These are classified in to a) Lampara nets
• b) Purse seines and c) Ring nets
 Lampara nets

• Lampara nets are surround nets with the

shape of a spoon or dust pan.
• The mesh size varies in different parts.
• They have short lead lines and a central bunt
(bag or lose netting) to contain the catch.
• Lampara nets are used for capturing forage
fish, that is, small schooling epipelagic fish.
• It is primitive one and used in Malaysia
Lampara nets
 Purse seines
• Long walls of webbing with purse line passing
through a series of rings, pulling of which
close the net bottom.
• The head and foot ropes are of equal length.
• Mesh size is uniform.
• Bunt can be either at one end or in the middle.
Purse seine net –
Operated along west coast of India
for pelagic shoaling fish
one boat PS System ( Main boat/ skiff/
carrier boat)
two boat PS system (2 main boats/ 1 carrier
boat)
 Ring Nets
• They are hybrids between the purse seines and
lampara like nets.
• They are like lampara nets in that the ground
rope is shorter than the head rope and the mesh
size varies in different parts.
• Ring nets are most suitable for small scattered
schools like herring, anchovy, mackerel and
sardines.
• They are similar to purse seines.
• They are lighter to handle, cheaper to build
and faster in operation.
• With the development and improvement of
purse seines and midwater trawl, the
importance of ring nets has declined.
• The ring nets are effective in impounding
small schools of fish in shallow waters up to
40 m depth from small low powered vessels.
• These are not popularly operated in India.
 Description
• The gear is rectangular in shape with a light
taper consisting of a bunt in the middle and
two wings on either side.
• The portion of the nets between wing and
bunts is called shoulder.
• The net is provided with stoppers spliced in to
a spring or hauling rope below the lead line.
• The stoppers are usually 6 m long and placed
at 14 m apart.
• Ring bridles and purse rings are present near
the central part up to the shoulders and spring
rope is only in the wings.
• The hauling rope is not continuous throught
but tied at the centre separately from each side.
• A typical net is about 212 m long and 40 m
deep.
• The head rope is provided with floats and foot
rope with sinkers.
• A number of buoys are attached to the head
rope at suitable intervals to provide additional
buoyancy.
 Operation
• Operation of ring nets is carried out from two
boats though only one boat undertakes setting
and hauling and the other boat merely helps in
towing the net to complete encirclement of fish
school.
• Setting in initiated with the boat dropping a
buoy fastened to the bridle at the front wing.
• The net is paid out from aft around the fish
shoal in a semicircle.
• The second vessel moves to the first buoy, picks it
up and secures that end of the net for towing.
Both the boats tow the net so that the fish shoal is
completely encircled.
• After encircling, the second boat hands over its
bridle and hauling rope to the setting boat.
• Most of the crew also move to the first boat for
handling the net. Subsequently, the second boat
takes up position and passes a tow rope to the
setting vessel.
• The crew pull both wings of the net aboard one
forward and one aft. During this operation, the
hauling rope bearing the main weight of the
net is hauled by the twin warping heads of the
winch. The webbing is manually handled.
• When hauling is complete with the bunt along
side, the second vessel retrieves the tow rope
and steams around to the outer edge of the
cork line to provide additional support and to
help in transferring the catch.
 Vessel for ring net operation
• Ring nets are operated from two small low-
powered vessels measuring around 5 m length,
2.5 m beam and 2 m draft.
• The wheelhouse is small and placed aft of
amidships. The engine room is aft, a large fish
hold is amidships while the cabin is forward.
 Purse seine
• Purse seining is one of the most important
commercial fishing methods of the world.
• This is a method which is used for the capture of
small pelagic fishes for manufacture of fish meal
as well as for catching fishes of high individual
value like tunas.
• The principle of catching fish in a purse seine
involves surrounding a school of fish by a long
wall of webbing and subsequently pulling the
bottom of the net by means of a purse line.
• The fish catch from this artificial pond of
webbing is then removed either by brailing or
pumping. The efficiency of purse seines has gone
up considerably with the introduction of synthetic
twines and ropes, power block, improved method
of fish detection by sonar, increased
manoeurability of the vessel by side thrusters,
controllable pitch propellers and improved bulk
fish handling.
• The purse seines are used to catch fishes like
sardines, mackerels, tuna, herring, pilchard, white
bait, cat fishes etc.
• Setting - Net is set from the after deck, purse
rings being stowed on bar forward of the
stowed net and sliding off as the net is shot.
• Pursing: The dhan has been retrieved, the
purse wire is being hauled using the winch on
the fore deck.
• Hauling – Pursing complete the net is led over
the power block, onto the transport roller and
into the net bin, stowed ready for the next shot.
The purse rings are passed aft from the pursing
davit via a wire to be stowed along side the net
on a bar
• Pumping : The fish pump is lifted in to the net
by a crane and the fish are pumped in to a
water separator before being channelled in to
the RSW tank below
 Description of the gear
• It consist of a long wall of webbing with the
main body, bunt, shoulder and wing.
• The bunt portion is made up of a thicker twine
and that is the part of the net which is shot first
and where the catch gets accumulated.
• It is shorter in depth compared to other panels.
• It can be placed either in the centre of the net
or on one side. The end part of the net to be
shot last is called wing.
 Encircling gear/ Sardine fishery 1940/ Pelagic shoaling fish
 Rectangular webbing/ Bunt/ purse line/ rings
 Depth = 10% of Length
 15mm for sardine/ 10-12 mm for anchovies
 Deck layout: M/D, winch/ wheel house/ power block/ skiff
 Lead line is 10% longer than float line
 Ratio of buoyancy to wt= 1.5-2.0
 Purse ring: Brass 1-1.5 kg
 HHR:0.65-0.75
 Detection of fish shoal: smell of water/ birds/ chumming of water/
bubbles/ black colour patch
• The upper edge of the net is attached to the
head rope and the lower edge to the foot rope.
• There is a line called float line carrying the
floats and is attached to the head rope.
• Below the foot rope there is a purse line
through which pass the purse rings.
• A triangular piece of webbing at wing end
called choke helps in heaving the float line and
lead line during the hauling operation.
• A few rows of meshes made of thicker twine
are provided at the upper, lower and sides of
the webbing. These are called selvedges and
are provided to take the strain. The pair of
ropes called haul in bridle are attached at the
ends of net.
• The ropes connecting each purse ring with the
foot rope are called ring bridles.
• CLASSIFICATION :
• Based on scale of operation :
• i) Small scale : Mini purse seine/ ring seine
• ii) Medium scale purse seine
• iii) Large scale purse seine

• Based on no. of vessel used :

• i) One boat purse seine
• Ii) Two boat purse seine
• Based on method of operation :
• i) Surface purse seine
• Ii) Sinking purse seine
• Based on target sps.
• i) Anchovy P.S
• Ii) Sardine P.s
• Iii) Mackerel P.S
• Iv) Tuna P.S
• V) herring P.S
• Vi) Cod P.S
• Vii) capelin P.S
 Basic purse seining systems
• There are seven basic purse seining systems,
known mostly after the name of the countries
or places where they are prevalent:
• Western one – boat system:
• This is the most common type of purse seining
method where the net is operated from a single
vessel either a skiff or buoy.
• The skiff is useful during hauling to prevent
entanglement of the net and to prevent the
vessel from riding over the gear.
Skiff boat
• In this method of purse seining makes use of a
forward wheelhouse arrangement so that there
is sufficient working space aft.
• The engine room is placed below on the
forward side.
• Fish hold lies abaft the engine room
• Aft of the fish hold is the net storage space.