Designing and Testing New Fishing Gears: The Value of a Flume Tank

Increasing regulations, bycatch restrictions, and concerns over ecosystem impact are now the driving forces for much of the development in fishing gear design occurring world-wide. Industry, government, and universities have responded to these challenges with major advancements in computer aided design, simulation, physical modeling techniques, and world-class testing facilities. Model studies are a critical step in the development of new fishing gears and flume tanks are the de facto standard for investigating their attributes and performance under controlled conditions. This paper discusses the nature of flume tanks, their attributes, as well as the science and art of building and testing scale models of fishing gear.