Harvesting Atlantic Salmon

Harvesting Atlantic Salmon in 100'x100' steel pens takes a large seine boat, 2 salmon farmers, gear and knowledge. The idea is to get a certain amount of fish, out of the pens and into a seine boat with minimal stress on the fish and the seine boat leaving on time to get to the plant with a full load.

Ideally, you would have all the gear in place and ready before the boat shows up. That means having a seine full of fish with a trough ready and corks on standby. The equipment you would need to accomplish this is 2 capstans, a seine net with built in gables, 3 seine lines, a set of corks, 2 cork lines and two cork retrieval lines, a trough line, 8 cannonballs and 4 blocks.

The first step is to setup the harvest gear.

The seine net has to be stretched out on the outside walkway with the lead line up on the stantions. The capstans get tied down on the side walkways one and a half stantions in from the outside walkway. The blocks get put on short posts and inserted into the system on the corners of the middle walkway. The other two blocks get tied down on the corners of the outside walkway. The corks are put into the pen and stretched across the middle walkway wall. Tie one cork-line on each end of corks and walk the opposite end to the outside walkway corner and go through the block and leave slack by capstan. Also tie a retrieval line on each end of the corks leaving slack at center walkway corner. Now add pull lines to the seine, one on each corner and one in the middle. Run corner lines through the post blocks and walk the rest of slack back to the capstans.

Now you are ready to pull a seine.

Pulling a seine isn't that difficult when you have the gear and two or three people to do it. Start by fleeting the web and throwing 10-20 feet in and allow the lead line to sink, keeping only the corners of the lead line up and pipped off half a stantion up the side walkways. Now just fleet the rest of the seine into the pen until you get to the other leadline. Before dropping the corners make sure the gable lines are tied to each end of the seine. Wait for the seine to settle and then start jigging the net across the botton of the pen. To jig the net you have to pull the seine line 5-10 feet and then let it go slack. Repeat until the line looks to be as close as possible to the center walkway. Then using the capstan pull the seine net corners up until leadline is pipped on center walkway stantions. Next pull the center rope and start pipping all the sides up. You should now have a full seine of Salmon.

Time to setup the trough.

Start your trough line at one capstan. Go through the half stantion, you may have to drop the main net a little. Feed the trough line between the main net and seine net along the outside walkway wall and then back through the half stantion and tie it off on the cleats of the capstan. The trough line ready, time to pull web for the trough. Pleat three distances of pip to water all along the outside wall. Pull the trough line up with the capstan that isn't tied to by the trough line. Drop 5 cannonballs into trough and drop the pleats. With a little tweaking, this should create a nice large pocket called a trough.

Now drop the trough line so the center of it is about 5 feet below the surface. To minimize stress on the fish in the back of the trough drop a cannonball in on each side and set to max depth. You are now ready for the boat.

When the boat shows up take cannonballs out of back three sides. Starting in the center of the center walkway wall, pull web out. Work out the slack from that wall and work towards the trough. Sometimes the fish will start poring into the trough, sometimes the fish will sound against the net. If the fish are poring in then wait until you think you have a full trough and then pull the trough line up until it is completely out of the water. Adjust cannonballs and net in trough, throw back three side cannonballs and slack back into the pen and wait until boat has pump in and ready to pump. If the fish are sounding we will have to pull the corks. Use capstans and pull the corks evenly until the fish flow into the trough. Again when full, pull up the trough line.

Once the boat has the uplift pump in place and is pumping start forcing the fish towards the bell by pulling web out of trough. Continue working web until trough is empty and repeat the filling process again until the boat is full.