The Fleetwood registered Jacoba Maria is currently working out of Weymouth in Dorset...
on Thursday, she set her fly seine six times in a nine hour daylight period...
the approx area fished in by the her seine net was around 12 square miles...
each shot covers around 1.2 square miles...
also working nearby is the Exeter registered fly-shooter Asgar...
who managed to get five hauls in over eight hours of fishing.
Fly-shooters vessels lay out miles of seine rope in massive polygons before slowly winching them back in. As the ropes move across the seabed, they herd fish inwards toward a relatively lightweight net. Looking at the AIS tracks of a fly-shooter hauling its gear, a single set can easily enclose and sweep well over a square mile of ground in one go.
The resulting efficiency is significant. Fly-shooters cover vastly more ground and herd large volumes of fish with a fraction of the fuel burn. It is a clear demonstration of how laying out miles of rope can systematically cover huge areas of the seabed in a short space of time.
