One of the big challenges in New England is to find ways to fish healthy fish stocks like haddock, while leaving stocks that need to rebuild their populations. This problem confronts fishing communities around the nation, but is particularly difficult in the Northeast, where one net can often catch some 19 types of groundfish.
Using Yankee ingenuity, two Rhode Island fishermen and a local gear maker, along with university and Northeast Fisheries Science Center researchers, developed, scientifically tested and then manufactured new gear that effectively targets haddock while letting other species, such as cod, to swim free.
The story of how the fishermen — Phil Ruhle and his son, Phil Ruhle Jr. — and others invented a trawl, now called the Ruhle trawl, and trademarked the Eliminator, might spur other fishermen to contribute their solutions to other problems. For example, fishermen need gear or new fishing techniques that allow the catching of healthy stocks while allowing depleted flounders, such as winter flounder, to swim free and rebuild. We also need to reduce the incidental or unintentional catch, called bycatch, in other fisheries, such as the ocean herring, squid and shrimp fisheries.
The trawl invention came out of a desire by the Ruhles to catch more haddock and less skate.
"If you towed on the southeast part of Georges Bank, you'd have a monster bag of skate. And the skate roughed up the haddock," said Phil Ruhle Jr., explaining how the skate battered the haddock in the net, making them less valuable at auction. The Ruhles were also throwing skates overboard, often dead, which they didn't like to do.
The Ruhles remembered that, out west, pollock fishermen use very large mesh nets. So they decided to try an old squid net with 32-inch mesh. "We found the skates just fell out, leaving haddock in good shape," Phil Jr. said.
The Ruhles also knew that cod, monkfish and yellowtail flounder dive downward when confronted with a net. Haddock swim up when frightened.
The Ruhles went to Jon Knight, a gear maker in Narragansett, R.I. Then Knight and the Ruhles took their idea to David Beutel and Laura Skrobe, fisheries extension specialists and gear researchers at the University of Rhode Island. This team secured funding from NOAA's Northeast Cooperative Research program that enabled them to design and scientifically test the gear at sea on commercial fishing boats.
Tragically, Phil Ruhle died at sea last year when his vessel sank in a storm. But his son continued working on their design.
"We took an existing squid net that the Ruhles had and we modified it for groundfish, making the twine heavier, complying with all mesh size requirements and modifying the foot rope for a harder bottom fishery," said Knight.
He also installed another unique feature, called a kite, on the top of the net to lift it to allow the mesh at the bottom of the net to open wide for cod and skates to swim out. The mesh at the top of the net is smaller and serves to catch the haddock as they swim upward.
Beutel and Skrobe are now testing a mini version of the Ruhle trawl with funding from NOAA's cooperative research program that would work on smaller vessels. These tests are showing a significant reduction of cod and flounder catches.
The next step is for NOAA scientists, working with fishermen, to encourage others in the fleet to use various new gear developed through cooperative research.
Earl Meredith, who coordinates the Northeast cooperative research program in the science center, also hopes to bring together gear experts from around the region to form a special task force. These researchers would then work closely with fishermen and NOAA scientists, to solve the most pressing bycatch problems in our fisheries. The task force will need the know-how of fishermen to develop future fishing gear and techniques to reduce bycatch.
I welcome your comments and any suggestions of gear and technique solutions that may help the fishing industry harvest healthy stocks and allow stocks that are rebuilding to swim free. Send any comments to me at public.concerns.groundfish@noaa.gov
Dr. Jim Balsiger is acting assistant administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries service, based in Silver Spring, Md.
