Projects

Shown below is a drawing of some gear that Ken was testing.

He was attempting to make something that is too long for a rockfish to bite and still reach the hook, but which will not stop big lingcod.

The rockfish bycatch release cage consists of a 5-gallon pail with a spring-loaded mesh end. When fishing gear is raised and rockfish are present which need to be released, the rockfish are placed in the pail and the end is closed. The pail is lowered when the gear is lowered, which allows the swim bladder of the rockfish to repressurize. When it reaches bottom, a messenger is released which slides down the cable and triggers the mesh end to open, thus releasing the rockfish at the depth and in the area where they were captured.

A mechanism was designed which allowed a prawn trap to be observed in situ using video. The purpose of the study was to observe prawn reactions to the presence of the trap in order to improve trap designs, thus creating a more efficient prawn trap.