These vessels are generally between 30 and 50 feet. There are a few bigger and a few smaller. Their main purpose is to gather a catchable quantity of squid under their lights so that the seiner can make a set. As a general rule, a light boat will work closely with a particular seiner. Most light boats are equipped so that they may stay out on the ocean for as long as is necessary. More on this to follow.
The second vessel in the equation is the purse seiner. A purse seiner is called such because along the bottom are a number of rings. A rope passes through all the rings, and when pulled, draws the rings close to one another, preventing the fish from "sounding", or swimming down to escape the net. An example is shown below:
The typical squid seiner will hatch somewhere between 50 and 80 tons. There are some which hold more and some which can hold less.
The typical fishing day depends on a number of factors. For instance: (1) If there has been any daytime fish, (2) Time the seiner is through unloading, (3) Location of fishing activities, and (4) Day of the week. As a preliminary matter, the fishery operates Sunday through Thursday nights. Fishing activities out of Monterey will begin later in the evening on Sundays, while in most other places we are allowed to begin fishing on Sunday afternoons. There are certain areas, east of China Point at Catalina Island, where we are not allowed to perform any fishing activities before the sun has set. For now, let us assume we are not fishing in any of those areas. As a general rule, the light boat will leave before the seiner. They will have spoken over the weekend and decided where they want to start looking and plan to meet there at a set time. If fishing is tough and a light boat happens to be on a nesting area, he will likely have "camped out" over the weekend in order to hold his spot. Squid tend to spawn in certain areas we call nests. The squid, for some reason, will return to the same place over and over until that particular group is spawned out. It isnt uncommon for a light boat to remain on a productive nest for weeks, if not months, at a time in order to hold on to the productive spot. In such a scenario, the seiner will bring out supplies and fuel for his light boat. Regardless, the seiner will likely try to get to the desired destination before the sunsets. If they are able to locate fish prior to dark, the seiner will make a daytime set. See below for an example of a nice daytime haul from December, 2010.
This past year, most of the participating seiners were on a nightly limit. Depending on which market you fished for that limit ran between 20 tons to upwards of 80 tons. This was all dependent on the number of seiners fishing for a particular market and that market's ability to process the fish which was being delivered. In certain instances, the markets would not have orders for certain seiners or they would stagger the unloading times which ended up keeping some vessels under the pump (unloading) til midnight or 2AM - effectually keeping them in for the night.
So assuming the seiner hadn't caught their limit by the time it was dark, the light boat would turn on its lights. If things were slow to develop, the seiner might anchor up right next to their light boat and turn its lights on as well. Eventually, when enough squid had gathered under the lights, the seiner would pull its anchor, turn off its lights and get into position. Using radio frequencies, satellite telephone dispatches, or cell phones - the light boat and the seiner would tell each other what they saw. The seiner will typically slowly circle the light boat in order to try and get a better picture of what is around him and how to best deploy his net in order to maximize the number of tons caught. This past year, there were a number of times when the fish would not be right next to the light boat and the seiner had to account for that when making the set. Once a plan has been formulated, the seiner will get into position. As the seiner gets into position, the light boat will being to slowly pull up on the anchor's scope so as to prevent the net hanging on either the anchor or the chain. The exact position is dependent on the direction of and amount of wind as well as the speed and direction of the prevailing current. This is crucial, especially when fishing in water that is deeper than the depth of the bag. As the seiner lets go of the skiff, the light boat will begin to pull its anchor. As the seiner circles the light boat it is the responsibility of the light boat to keep an eye on the squid using his sonar and fathometer. It is imperative that the light boat pay attention to what the squid are doing. The savvy light boat operator can keep a school inside the net when a less experienced operator would watch as the school swam out. The person driving the skiff - skiff man - is responsible for keeping an eye on the seiner and keeping the front-end of the net tight. They aren't so much pulling the net as they are holding it in place. Once the seiner has met up with the skiff, the skiff man will pass the front-end to the crew on the seiner. He will then, carefully, drive over the net and grab the tow-line from the seiner. The tow-line is a strong line, typically made from spectra, which is attached to the seiner - usually by a bridle. This allows the skiff man some flexibility in terms of how to best maneuver the seiner under the varied situations they may encounter - bad weather, crowds and unforeseen difficulties. The net is then pulled in on the power block so that the purse line can be reached. Once the end of the purse line has been secured, the bottom of the net is closed.
In the meantime, the light boat remains inside the net. Once the purse line has been pulled beneath the light boat, the operator of the light boat will slowly work his way towards the edge of the net furthest away from the seiner. The exact position of the light boat will depend on where the fish are in the net and the particular seiner in question. Certain drum seiners (those who pull their nets with a large drum) prefer the light boat to remain more towards the bow while in the net. This lessens the weight on the net where it is being pulled aboard the seiner. Once the bottom of the net is closed as is indicated by the rings coming out of the water, the light boat will drive out of the net and return to the spot they pulled their anchor from. Once the rings are out of the water, the seiner will begin to pull in the net. The skiffman will generally pull the seiner in such a way that minimizes the drag created by pulling in the net - thus lessening the amount of pressure on the power block or drum. Once the net is along side, the crew of the seiner will work to create a bag. See the daytime picture above. Once the bag has been created, a pump is lowered into the net and the squid are pumped from the bag through a separator and into a refrigerated hold. This is done repeatedly until the seiner either: (1) catches his limit, (2) fills the boat, (3) timing dictates they return to port, or (4) experiences a mechanical problem and has to return to port.
Once back in port, the seiner will wait until it is their turn to unload. The squid are pumped off the boat like they were pumped on. The fresh squid are put into bins along with ice and water. They are then shipped to the processing plant where they are packaged and sold. Depending on the day and the time, the seiner will either have a few hours for the crew to perform maintenance, go shopping or have some downtime; or they will leave the processor and return to sea for another night's fishing.
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