Some Recent Developments in Mechanical Engineering in the Deep Sea Fishing Industry

Abstract

The world catch of marine fish has doubled in 10 years and is still rising. The need for the fleets to go farther afield, and the desire for a better balance of costs and earnings together with improved quality of product, have given rise to a number of innovations, such as freezing at sea, stern trawling and sophisticated machinery systems based on the internal-combustion engine. The author reviews these developments and their potential effect on the economics of the industry. Research and development on trawl gear and freezing plant, with which the author has been associated, are described briefly. New methods are forcing the industry to approach design of ships more rationally; recent studies on a trawl winch are cited as an example. In the paper attention is drawn to lack of knowledge in several fields, e.g. flow of boiling refrigerants and heat transfer thereto, the movement of vessels in a seaway, etc. The engineering effort in fisheries development in the United Kingdom is described briefly. Much of the applied research and development requires the co-operation of engineers and biological scientists; the exchange of knowledge and ideas is by no means all in one direction.