Flume tank and in situ trials for verification of static and dynamic methods for gear depth and underwater behavior of hairtail trolling lines

We investigated the underwater shapes of trolling lines for the improvement of hairtail fishing efficiency. Two sets of experiments were carried out, one on a small scale, where flume tank tests of four models were scaled down by a ratio of 1:10 and trolled at different speeds, and another at full scale, comprising a survey on board a commercial fleet. In situ trials were conducted off the coast of Jeju Island, South Korea, at 33°27′57.528″N, 126°55′48.846″E, a potential fishing ground for hairtail fishing. The full-scale gear was set by altering sinker weights whilst changing the length of the warp line at different towing speeds. A dynamic method using a mass-spring technique and full-scale gear was developed. External and internal forces that govern the motion of the gear were considered. A non-linear differential equation of motion was developed, solved by a fourth-order Runge–Kutta method at a time step of 5 × 10 −4 s for each trial. A static method was also developed using full-scale gear to predict the equilibrium gear configuration under all fishing conditions. The dynamic method better predicts the actual underwater performance of trolling line gear in real time.