Modeling the flow thorugh fine-meshed pelagiac trawls

There has in the last few years been an increasing interest in exploitaion of marine zooplankton and smaller pelagic fish. Reliable predicion of the actual flow thorugh and around fine-meshed pelalgic trawls is essential in this context, since e.g. copepo ds and krill to a large extent follows the flow in a passive manner, and since the flow and the resitance in fine-meshed trawls is relatively more dependent on the netting than in traditional trawls . However, due to the complexity of a trawls system, we may find quite varying and conflicting experience and opnions in the fishing industry as well as in the fisheries research community regarding flow-through in trawls in general, and no quite satisfactory theoretical models appear to exist. It is in fact c ustomary to neglect the chanes in the flow due to the presence of the trawl, which amy lead to unfortunate technical solutions. This project aims at developing a rigorius theoretical basis for modeling, predicting and interpreting the flow in fine-meshed pelagic trawls, verfy theory through experiments and observations and ensure practical use of new knowledge by implemting it in design tools and new technology.