Responsible Fishing and Sustainable Harvesting

Nowadays there is tremendous emphasis placed on fish quotas, sustainable harvesting, overfishing, waste etc.

“Responsible fishing means getting the right fish, at the right age, in the best condition, in the most cost-efficient manner, with the highest degree of crew safety and with the least environmental waste.”

What is the Mustad Autoline System?

Catching fish by hook & line is one of the oldest methods of fishing known to man. Baiting, coiling and handling longline gear was done by hand until the early 1970s.

The mainline consists of a rope or monofilament, and the line can vary in length from a few hundred meters up to 50-60 kilometres! The number of hooks that are set and retrieved each day can vary from 20.000 / 25.000 up to 50.000. Hook spacing varies from 1 up to 50 metres. Snoods, hooks and type of bait also vary depending on targeted species.

Traditionally, baiting of the hooks was done manually and boxes & tubs were used for storage prior to the setting of the line. Nowadays, however, when going longlining “offshore”, baiting of hooks, setting and hauling of lines is mostly automatic, and this is what the Mustad Autoline system is all about.

In the 1970s O. Mustad & Son developed the Mustad Autoline System, which mechanized the operation of longline fishing: a system securing a resource-friendly and profitable fishery for the future. Since then Mustad has supplied more than 700 systems worldwide.

What are the advantages offered by the Mustad Autoline System?

Everyone seems to agree that humankind must secure long-term preservation of fish resources, which in turn will give sustainable harvesting conditions for generations to come. Preservation and protection of spawning grounds and growth areas is important, but so is selective fishing and reduction of waste. Of the total world catch of 100 mill tons of fish, an estimate of 30 mill tons are thrown overboard!

You have to choose the rigth catch methods regarding the size and species you intend to catch. You cannot catch herring, for example, with longline. Researchers claim that longlining is a very resource-friendly catch method that makes it easy to target the species and avoid waste.

Another advantage is that automatic longlining gives much better working conditions for the crew than with manual longlining.

Autolining is a “low cost” fishing method that gives:

• large fish and excellent quality
• little waste
• very good prices
• very good profitability.

There are three major phases in this operation:

1. Baiting and Shooting Operation:
When the first buoys and anchors are dropped over the rail, the gear is pulled from the storage magazines through the Baiting Machine. One man will feed the whole baitfish into the machine, which will cut the bait, bait the hook, and set it over the stern.

The speed of the boat pulls the gear through the Baiting Machine. The hooks passing through trigger the machine for the next hook to be baited.

Setting speed would be from 6-10 knots (3-6 hooks per second) depending on the model of Baiting Machine used and spacing between hooks.

This operation is handled by 2-3 crew members.

2. Hauling Operation:

A Line Hauler pulls the gear over a Rail Roller and through a Fish Stripper and Hook Cleaner.

The Fish Stripper de-hooks the fish and cleans the hooks of any remaining bait, while 1 crew member is needed to operate the hauler and safe-gaff fish.

3. Maintenance and Gear Storage:
The Hook Separator pulls the gear from the Line Hauler around Pulleys and through Guide Tubes. The Hook Separator cleans the gear, clears the hooks from the main line and hangs the hooks onto a Hauling Magazine.

The Hook Separator can hang up to 70 hooks per minute.

When the Hook Separator has conveyed the hooks onto the Hauling Magazine, the gear is inspected and repaired, changing damaged hooks or snoods. When one storage magazine is filled with hooks and lines, you slide it into the storage position ready for the next shooting operation.

Number of crew members needed for this operation will vary depending on the number of hooks being hauled.

3.


The Hook Separator clears the hook and snoods/gangions and hangs them onto the magazines. Gear repair is done before the magazines are put in the storage position.