Fishing boats with ring nets

[NPMR]

Watching the fishing boats catching pilchards on TV the other night, I was struck by how hard they would be to deal with, if, say, in a sailing boat at night especially.

Col Regs are clear about vessels on specific courses.

But what of a fishing vessel going round in a circle, with a 400 yard wide net off to one side, possibly not visible?

 

[RichardS]

ColRegs are very clear about fishing boats engaged in fishing ...... keep well away.

Unless, of course, you are Not Under Command, Restricted in Ability to Manoeuvre or Constrained by Draft.

Richard

 

[Graham376]

Most fishing boats with big nets will have lots of working lights on and quite often use net lights at night. Unless you can see it's a trawler, keep a wide berth and have radio on.

 

[afterpegassus]

These ring nets are just a smaller version of a purse seine net which was an evolution of the herring ring net common on the west coast of Scotland in the fifties and sixties.
When pursing, boats were obliged to show an orange flashing light to identify their activity.
I think I have seen these Cornish boats displaying this on these programmes.
A wee footnote, when the Scottish herring fishery was decimated by these too efficient purse netters and the fishery was closed, they moved south to the Cornish waters and the channel to plunder the mackerel stocks there.

 

[Gwylan]

These ring nets are just a smaller version of a purse seine net which was an evolution of the herring ring net common on the west coast of Scotland in the fifties and sixties.
When pursing, boats were obliged to show an orange flashing light to identify their activity.
I think I have seen these Cornish boats displaying this on these programmes.
A wee footnote, when the Scottish herring fishery was decimated by these too efficient purse netters and the fishery was closed, they moved south to the Cornish waters and the channel to plunder the mackerel stocks there.

Suggestions of keeping the radio on or fishing activity having associated lighting are a bit naive.
Generally getting near fishing activity is always a bit risky. The behaviour and attitude of a lot of fishing boats seems short of perfect.
My expectations have always been that I can expect the unexpected from fishing boats.
Also that there are a set of rules employed by the fishing community that do not reflect the wisdom of the Collision Regulations.

 

[Graham376]

Suggestions of keeping the radio on or fishing activity having associated lighting are a bit naive.

Not at all naive, if a fishing boat sees you heading for his net, he'll most likely warn you off on VHF. Nets are expensive. Quite likely you won't see navigation lights because the big boats usually have so many deck lights on, you can see the glow for miles. Long circular nets are quite frequent off the Algarve coast and they often have a small boat to warn others off and help keep the net clear of their props when hauling.