Why Change to FloMo
It’s time for change.
It’s clear all around us that governments, consumers and society want wild capture fishing to evolve. Many in the fishing sector feel the same, but they need new ideas, technologies and people skilled and willing to help transition into a future state.
FloMo is part of this transition, and is set to disrupt traditional attitudes about what is possible and what should be expected from mobile net fishing, one of the most common fishing methods used globally.
By combining the energy efficiency of mobile net fishing together with the low injury herding and capture methods offered by FloMo, not only will we arrive at a more humane way to harvest fish and release non-target catch, fishers will receive more value for their quota and consumers will get better quality food.
FloMo is catalysing innovation across the sector, including new vessel designs and onboard handling processes to maintain fish quality, underwater catch sensing and protected species release systems, new financial incentives to reward fishers for product quality and humane handling and the re-writing of fisheries regulations to drive further innovation. Change is needed, change is wanted and FloMo is changing the way the world fishes.
"There was a remarkable difference in condition compared to conventional nets. I have never seen the fish on deck look so alive!"
Pieke Molenaar
Wageningen Marine Research
Survivability
Research into the survivability of landed catch indicates that the chances of survival are strongly related to the levels of damage and fatigue inflicted during the trawl and lift. The washing machine effect that creates fish-on-fish and fish-on-net damage in a traditional codend is virtually nullified by FloMo as it creates a low flow, low turbulence environment, allowing the fish to maintain their natural swimming behaviour and take care of themselves.
Equally, FloMo mitigates the compression of the catch that occurs in a traditional codend as the fish remain suspended in water inside the Liftbag Module. This reduces physical damage to the fish's body including the protective mucus layer, scales, eyes, and fins, greatly enhancing their chances of survival.
FloMo trials with Wageningen Marine Research on Plaice bycatch and discard survivability.
Objective: Research into the survival chances of bycatch and discards clearly shows that they are strongly related to how damaged fish are when they are brought on deck. The trial was designed to determine the levels of damage on bycatch and undersize fish landed in a traditional codend vs FloMo.
In total, the condition score of undersized plaice was determined for 16 tows in the trials, in this case using 4.5m beams with one conventional chain mat trawl and one with FloMo.
Wageningen Marine Research has developed a protocol for quickly judging the condition of bycatch or discards at sea. This allows them to estimate the survival rate of undersized plaice released from the codend. Each fish is assigned a score based on a combination of the presence of reflexes and damage. A very lively, undamaged fish scores an ‘A’, and a lively fish with some damage gets a ‘B’. A sluggish fish with moderate damage that doesn’t seem immediately fatal scores a ‘C’, and fish that are very badly damaged and are estimated to perish or already dead, a ‘D’.
The graph above shows the frequency per condition score for both the conventional codend and FloMo. In the conventional codend, 20% of the undersized plaice was already dead onboard; in FloMo, this was less than 10%.
More than 70% of the undersized plaice caught with FloMo scored an ‘A’ or ‘B’; in the conventional codend, 70% scored a ‘C’ or ‘D’.
The results show that fish caught in FloMo are significantly more lively and have less damage. This most likely translates into a significantly higher survival rate after return to the sea.
The research demonstrated that FloMo delivers better survival
outcomes for bycatch or discards at sea. The research showed that over 70 % of the undersized plaice caught with FloMo were undamaged or had minor damage; whereas in the conventional codend, 70 % of undersized plaice caught had moderate damage or were likely to die or were dead.
Fish caught in FloMo are significantly more lively and have less damage. This mostly translates into a significantly higher survival rate after returns to the sea.
Quality and Premiumisation
Typically, in a traditional mesh codend, fish tend to lose swimming control due to factors such as fatigue, the confined environment and turbulence.
Fatigue results in increasing levels of fish-on-fish abrasion and fish-on-mesh damage, along with crushing as the catch packs into the back of the mesh codend. Studies show this is more prevalent in longer duration tows or when catch density is high.
Constructed from custom-designed, high-strength composite fabrics, the FloMo is made up of different modules that work together to generate a low-turbulence, low- damage hydrodynamic environment that gently filters incoming catch and allows it to be hauled aboard without dewatering. FloMo’s entire design and development has been predicated on delivering this.
Selectivity
It’s common that when people first learn that the FloMo is not made of mesh netting they assume it is unable to let fish escape, or that it is unselective. However, the FloMo is an excellent platform to optimise the size and species selectivity of catch herded by mobile nets such as trawls, and a superior choice to mesh codends in almost all fisheries tested to date.
Here’s why. The FloMo allows fish to recover from the herding process and swim in a water speed of their choosing. Fish never pack in the end of the FloMo from exhaustion or injury as in a mesh codend, they keep swimming around the Retention Modules and interacting with the escapement holes.
Fish that are small enough either exit the escapement holes by deliberately swimming out or are gently carried out by the exiting water current. Put simply, give the fish swimming control, don’t exhaust or injure them, surround them with a stable, porous surface to interact with, and if they are the right size and shape, they will likely find a way out. While it seems obvious, only the FloMo has the physical and hydrodynamic capability to fully realise this concept.
Our initial regulatory requirement in trials was to mimic as closely as possible the behavioural characteristics of a traditional codend. In early trial data, there was little or no noticeable difference between FloMo and traditional codends around selectivity and the size of fish caught.
Generally, FloMo provides better selectivity than mesh codends, and is better at retaining saleable, larger catch. Catch per unit effort of target species and sizes are often higher with FloMo, leading to less fuel use per unit quota.
While the initial design targets for FloMo were focused on improved fish welfare and harvested fish quality, we are learning that this technology concept will enable fishers to pursue selectivity goals previously unimaginable with the use of mesh codends. The FloMo is a blank canvas upon which we draw and cut hundreds of escapement apertures precisely to fit the shape and size of the herded catch we wish to gently eject at depth.
