8 



wlio has ))een trained up iu the Englisli trawi-fisliing, has coiistructed a trawl 

 which, instead ot' beuig kept open by a heavy beara, is kept open l)y means 

 of two h'on-monnted wooden boards, whicli stand erect in tlic wator, lastened 

 to the vessel by cables of steel-wire, and wliich, by tlie speed ol' tlie vcssel, re- 

 movc from onc another and tlius keep the net open«. — »The new trawl has 

 quite replaced the beam-trawl amoug the steam-trawlers in Grimsby and Hull, 

 and even in Belgium and Gerniany it is uow being introduccd.« As to the 

 whole historical development of this matter with respect to the professional 

 fishermen I shall refer to a note by J. Spillmanu (illustrated )iy //. Criehel) in 

 »Mittheilungen d. deutschen Seefischereivereins 189G« pp. lol — 15("). According 

 to this, a Daue, Captain Nielsen, of the Danish fishing-steamer »Dania«, has 

 lirst understood to use the otters in the right way. — 



Fig. :l. The English Otter-Trawl.. 



When this trawl has not become general till these latter years, ihougli we 

 have also before kuowu »otters«'") i. e. boards for the spreading of the net, one 

 reason among others is that they cannot well be used without steani, and it is 

 not till (piite lately thatwe have introduoed steam-trawler.s. This gear is eertainly 

 the »hest« our time knows of ^ the fishing-a])paratus which is most terrible to 

 the fish. A haul witli it, of 4 — (i Iionrs, as it is nsually made, but out on the 

 greatest deptlis, will eertainly, with a liltlo good hiek, give as mauy fish as an 

 ordinary deep-sea expedition generally brings liome. Such an otter-trawl (or 

 »Skovl-Travl«, if you prefer that name) is dragged by the fisliermen, however, 



*) English Otter, Xorwegiau Otcy, iinil Danish Odilcr is thi' same word (■iiii)l()ycil 

 fignratively of a somewhat okler fishingapparatus used in fresh wati'r. A wooden board 

 of the same eonstruction a.s those of the trawls is hero u.sed to stretch out a line with 

 hooks from a boat while sailing. This gear has been called otter, because it tishes so 

 well. A trawl with two otter-boards was then called otter trawl; but I think the Dani.sh 

 Skovl-Travl or Skovl-\'aad is a better nanie, and tliis has been used also in Denmaric for 

 some plaice-seines with boards, employed by the tishornien in tlic North Sea. — The 

 seine described in this paper is a cel otter-dragseine. 



