Numéro : 2079 - Year : 1989
General presentation of fishing boats
M.RAVNAUD, Président d'Honneur de COFREPECHE
The importance of a fishing fleet is not so much reflected by its capacity, expressed in GRT, but by the large number of fishing units it includes and by its socio-economic impacts.
Fishing is a complex and highly diversified activity; Fishing boats are classified according to the multitude of fishing techniques used, but most belong to the trailer or the seiner types.
The true industrial revolution in fishing did not occur until the 1950s. It has led to a dramatic production increase which is both impressive and worrying, considering that total production rose from 20 to almost 90 millions metric tons in 19B6.
The improvement of the working conditions for the deckhands, the increase in fish trade, the creation of the EEZ and the implementation of the catch quotas, the need for quality improvement and the market dietary preferences are all new factors which have had serious impacts on fishing boats design. A ship is now planned according to the needs of the markets it supplies, the resource it harvests, while product quality and added value are taking precedence over quantity landed. Productivity is henceforth measured in terms of financial yields not landed tonnage.
Two case studies, the industrial trawler and the intertropical tuna seiner, illustrate the "vertical" process followed now for fishing boats design and for the integration onboard these ships of the most recent technological improvements and of the results of "horizontal" research in a variety of domains.
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