On commission from the PSA, IKM Ocean Design has prepared a report describing the trend in the size of trawl gear and how the design standards have been developed.
A considerable increase in size
The report shows that there has been a considerable increase in the size of trawlers and a general increase in the size of trawl gear used on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
The report describes the historical trends in trawl gear and types and also covers the development of standards, from the initial inclusion of trawls in design standards to the present day. This also addresses the need for improvement in a number of areas in the standards.
The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries has recently made trawl data publicly available
This is a significant advance and enables operators to expound on trawling activity historically and up to the present day.