412 March 2007
Long Lines for a Purse Seiner
Capt. Mien Saeguay with his boat. Note the two winch head for pursing with the Cummins main. A small fibreglass cabin has been added to the top of the vessel for the sonar and other electronics to be used while fishing.
Purse seining is well known as one of the most effective technologies for demersal fisheries. Today many nations support extensive fleets of 20 to 30-meter wood, steel, fiberglass or aluminum vessels working with nets that range of 500 to 1000 meters in length. Throughout Malaysia and Thailand, even in the wooden boat fleet, these vessels are typically equipped with sonar and Puretic-style hydraulic power-blocks for hauling back the nets.
All of this was evidenced on a recent visit to the F.V. Sombatpomae (translated as “wealth of the father and mother) owned by Khun Thayuth who recently acquired it from a processor. The 20 by 7-meter wood purse seiner was built 20 years ago in Mahachai on the Gulf of Thailand and brought around Singapore and through the Straits of Malacca to the Thai Andeman Sea port of Ranong.
The light boat carries a crew of three.
The boat’s crew was busy working to splice what looked like short 18-inch ganglions into skates of half-inch ground line. Captain Mien Saeguay (known to the crew as Capt. Dum) quickly explained that these were not ground-lines and it would be coconut husks, not hooks that would be affixed to the gear.
 Two of the crew splice the "ganglions" into the main line. |
The boat fishes mackerel and various small local tunas in waters of 30 to 70 meters. Species include plaa oh dum (tonggol tuna), plaa oh lai (Thai skipjack or euthynnus) and plaa ta toh (big eye). The lines, with a small forest of coconut husks attached, are deployed between bamboo-pole-marked floats at the surface and concrete-filled bucket anchors. They are arranged in a 10-meter diameter circle of 15 lines. Several of these are set out in the day. They to attract feed that in tern brings the larger fish. After dark, a light boat is anchored about 20 meters from the coconut husk assemblage. The lights draw the fish from the coconut husks to clear water where the seine boat can set around them.
The boat typically makes four sets per night for a total catch of about 50 metric tons that is the boat’s capacity. On departing the dock, two of the boat’s nine insulated hold compartments are filled with ice and a third with water.
In spite of the F.V. Sombatpomae's 500 horsepower Cummins KTA19 main engine that is standard on these vessels, this is a labour intensive fishery with a 35-man crew on the seine boat and another three on the light boat.
The purse seiner Sombatpomae. Note the top pilot house and the snatch block forward. The large crew sleeps on two teak decks layerd in the cabin aft of the main wheelhouse and captain's quarters.
For more information on tuna and Thai processing:
Sally Ananya Surangpimol
Managing Director
FIC Global Company Limited
10th Floor, UNICO HOUSE
29/1 Soi Langsuan, Ploenchit Rd.,
Lumpini, Pathumwan
Bangkok 10330 THAILAND
Tel : 662 684-1160 to 1
Fax : 662 684-1162
Mobile: 661 870-5084
E-mail: director@thefoodschool.net
URL: www.thefoodschool.net
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