The construction of new automatic trawling system on fisheries training ship 'Koyo maru' (2,300 GT size)

The fisheries industry profitability is declining, due to diminishing resources, increasing imports, fish prices remaining low and fuel oil prices increasing. With the objectives to promote a stable supply of sea-food products now and into the future, the Fisheries Agency of Japan has established a committee to review the structural reforms of fishing vessels and fisheries for the purpose of implementing comprehensive programs to improve the industry profitability, to grow successors and to nurture internationally competitive operations. One of their targets is to modify fishery by using fishing vessels with energy-, labor- and power-saving operations with reduced costs. In view of such objectives, and with the next generation of training ships, the Koyo maru is to be newly constructed. The National Fisheries University reviewed a system to save energy, labor and power requirements for trawler operations, and has developed an unconventional and automatic self-trawl and navigation system (STNS). Examinations of the STNS operation were carried out to be adjustments for control of net-trawling models and parameters determination. Trawl net in surface, middle, bottom and deep-sea bottom operated in the East China Sea and 3D objects recognition of otter-board, trawl net and the other necessary information for system control were measured. This report provides a review of STNS as well as the characteristics of trawl net and its equipments by the experiments.