Crystal Sea Trawling Blog

We have just finished another trip, we have been working to the south west of the lizzard point, catching a good mix of fish, but the fishing wasn't that great come the end of the week as the combonation of unsettled weather and a slackish spring tide doesn't help much this time of year.

We had quite an eventful night one night this week, in the south western approaches we have alarge amount of telecommuniction cable's on the seabed, as it is the first point of land that the cables reach after travelling along the ocean floor, from the America's until they reach Europe. Most of the time they do not bother us as they are usually well buried under the seabed, but from time to time and in certain places they can become exsposed due to movments in the sand on the sea floor. This is when it can be a problem, as it was one night last week one our starboard net snagged a cable. We had to heave up very slowly to make sure the gear was not coming up afoul thus damaging the hull or propellor, then we detached the doors and the center clump and started to heave the nets, the port net we managed to get to the surface and heave aboard, but the starboard net was still afast solid.

At this point we have to be very careful. firstly for the safety of the boat and crew and secoundly not to damage the cable, and also not to loose our net. I hauled the bridle very gingerly and luckily the tide was turning so i heaved on one side and slacked out on the other side of the net and it must of tipped the cable off the net and we drifted clear.

We had damage to our net on the headline, but it only took a couple of hours to fix and we were shot again. The cables can be quite a pain but mostly we know where the exsposed one are located so we avoid them as much as we can, but tis one most have recently uncovered.

A few years back when the dot com boom was at its peak there were many companies rushing to put in as many cable's as possible, most were very thorough and buried them well but some didn't even bother, such was the race to put them in. The annoying part is that when the cable has past its useful life they don't have to pull them up and dispose of them, they are left on the seabed and they cause us huge problems. I think it should be part of the contract that they are resonsible for the disposel as well as the laying of them.

Alec has the boat away this week and he is hoping to push through til tuesday night but it all depends what happens with the weather as the low is deepening and he may be forced in over the weekend at some point,