Environmentally friendly and innovative trawl doors
Trawl doors are large steel structures that keep trawls open during trawl fishing; they are traditionally heavy and inefficient to carry around on the boats. Large ships usually carry varied trawl doors for different types of fishing, which increases the down-time needed to change doors between different types of catches. Heavy, conventional trawl doors are also inconvenient to change as they need to be taken back to land or changed on deck during dangerous sea conditions. Bottom trawling damages the sea bed with conventional trawl doors that dig into the seafloor, and this has put pressure on trawlers to change their fishing practices. With the EU-funded EKKO initiative, project coordinator Smári Jósafatsson set out to create unique trawl doors that reduce fuel consumption with a unique shape and lighter materials. Jósafatsson and the rest of the EKKO team wanted to revolutionise trawl doors and reduce the carbon footprint of trawl fishing. The team created EKKO trawl doors to suit multiple types of trawl fishing and in this way reduce down-time between catches. They minimised the weight of their mid-water fishing trawl door by using aluminium as well as steel in larger doors, creating a product that is multifunctional, fuel efficient and eco-friendly. “The captain of a vessel using EKKO trawl doors may want to increase or decrease the weight of the doors,” says Jósafatsson. “That is easy to do while the EKKO doors hang in the trawl blocks.” Jósafatsson explains that the weight of the EKKO trawl doors can be changed by adding or removing second-hand chains inside the compartments. The novel design has so many innovations that the team has applied for four different international patents. The innovations are airfoil-shaped trawl doors, a novel connection for trawl doors, weights for hollow trawl doors and a built-in water/air trap. The EKKO team conducted a market analysis and reactions from the end-users showed that their innovative trawl doors would have a significant impact on the industry. Jósafatsson says they have to hurry to conduct more trials before they start to market their product next year. Jósafatsson and the team ran into some funding issues during the project, which slowed it down significantly. However, they recently attracted three investors to help them get back on track with their plans. The team used the market analysis to identify additional partners to further develop their innovative design and test it through flume tank tests and fishing trials. EKKO has developed a detailed business plan that includes revenues and costs analysis, a commercialisation plan and a risk assessment. “As the project funding has finished, our next step has been to apply for a H2020 PH2 grant,” Jósafatsson notes. The team now has two pairs of doors in trials and they want the products to be optimal when they enter the market. They are working with an engineering company to conduct computational fluid dynamics trials and further flume tank tests before they bring the product to market. “We will start marketing in our home market in Iceland, and then enter the closest markets such as Greenland, Faroe Islands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark,” explains Jósafatsson. “Soon after that we will look towards other countries in western Europe, and the east coast of Canada and the US. Then we will go worldwide.” EKKO team members have also already appeared in numerous national newspapers for their innovative design and environmental consciousness. They envision themselves becoming the biggest and most revolutionary trawl door suppliers in the world within 10 years.
Keywords
EKKO, trawl doors, fishing, trawl fishing, seafloor, carbon footprint