Hampidjan’s annual flume tank visit to Hirtshals in late November was highly successful, with around 50 participants, and the group was unusually international on this occasion. Participants included skippers, mates and other representatives from fishing companies in Chile, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, Norway, Canada, the Faroe Islands, Denmark and Iceland.
The programme took into account participants’ needs and background, and overall satisfaction with the structure and presentation was high. In the flume tank, a range of fishing gear innovation were presented, including semi-circular Flow Gear, designed to replace traditional rockhoppers on bottom trawls. The streamlined shape reduces resistance both in the water and on the seabed, reducing warp tensions and reducing energy consumption during fishing.
New configurations of blue whiting trawls were also presented, along with new types of herring and mackerel codends. Particular emphasis was placed on gear performance in the water and on how different rigs perform under conditions that simulate real-world use.
Thyborøn Trawldoor introduced new trawl doors with automatic height control, a function that maintains a predefined clearance between the doors and the seabed. This has proven effective under demanding seabed conditions, including on uneven ground, and also offers increased flexibility in pelagic fisheries, in which door height can be easily adjusted to follow the movement of fish schools.
Simberg presented equipment from Simrad. A new feature of this trip was a live connection to vessels operating on Icelandic fishing grounds, enabling real-time demonstration of the equipment in use. This setup proved successful and received positive feedback from participants. Among the systems presented were a trawl monitoring system that displays the trawl’s real-time position directly on sonars and plotters, a new integrated SN50 sonar, a 50 kHz multibeam echosounder for demersal trawlers, a current meter displaying flows at different depths which is particularly useful for surface mackerel fisheries, and a new FS80 headline sonar with an extended frequency range, as well as other sonar, depth-measuring and trawl systems.
Part of the programme took place outside the flume tank facilities. The group visited Karstensens Shipyard for a tour of the new Skinney-Thinganes pelagic vessel Ásgrímur Halldórsson. Currently under construction, this vesssel is expected to arrive in Iceland early next spring. Visits were also made to the Skagen and Hirtshals net lofts of Hampidjan subsidiary Cosmos Trawl.
The diverse background of the participants provided a strong basis for professional discussion and personal interaction, particularly during shared dinners throughout the trip. Hampidjan also hosted a Christmas dinner in Copenhagen on the final evening before the return journey. Some participants took the opportunity to extend their stay over the weekend, with the city in its festive finest.
“Trips like these are very important. They give us the opportunity to present new developments, engage directly with users, and receive valuable feedback from people who work with the gear on a daily basis,” says Jón Oddur Davíðsson, Managing Director of Hampidjan Iceland.
Overall, the trip was a clear success and underlined the importance of combining expert presentation with opportunities to share and experience, with personal interaction between participants and Hampidjan staff.
