Danish Seine: Computer based Development and Operation

The main objective of the present project is to provide software tools which will make transition to the Danish seine fishing method easier and enable design of more optimized fishing gears of this type. There is a growing interest to adapt this fishing m ethod as an alternative to bottom trawling in some situations, because it is more fuel efficient, provides less impact on the seabed and leads to higher fish quality in the catch. The access to such tools will promote more environmental friendly fishing methods and it will put Norwegian fishing industry in the forefront regarding design and operation of Danish seine. It should also put Norwegian scientists in the forefront regarding development and use of computer simulation based methods for development and analysis of active fishing gears. The project will run for three years (2013-2015). The research work will be divided between development of simulation models, development of software tools and verification of tools and models. The most critical research tasks are found within the model development. In particular, there are unsolved challenges within the selection properties of net structures, computational efficient methods for modelling interactions between net structures and the surrounding fl uid. Also the structural modelling of the net structure, possibly using a compliant variation of the Baumgarte method poses a particular challenge. The most challenging development tasks will probably be within integration against sources of environmenta l information as well as creating user interfaces suitable to the needs of the different user groups. The research team will be mainly SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture (SFH) and the University of Tromsø. But additional international expertise will be pro vied through an expert workshop. Industry will be involved through workshops.