Electrified Side (Abeam) Trawl

Description

An electrified or non-electrified side Push Trawl for surface trawling, deploying a Frame trawl on each side of the boat. The trawl consists of netting attached to a rectangular frame on each side of the boat. When electrified, the net frames are the cathode electrode paired with anode droppers suspended from two forward beams. Another anode array may be suspended in the net mouth to reduce larger-fish escape from the trawl body. The non-electrified configuration captures smaller sized fish effectively, but electrification is needed to increase larger-sized adult capture of some species.

Type	Active, non-electrified or electrified Push Trawl (Surface Trawl); if electrified, the Paupier is a Hybrid System gear type.
Habitat deployed	Small to large rivers, larger flooded tributaries, and lakes. Deeper water.
Target species	Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), Paddlefish (Polyodon spathula), White bass (Morone chrysops), and likely many other species and smaller life stages, similar to an electrified Dozer trawl.

See also associated information in the modules Introduction to Trawls,Push Trawls, Electrified Dozer Trawls, as well as Net Materials and Lines.

Paupier Trawl Anatomy

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Drawing of the Paupier electrified trawl set-up.

Netting is attached to rectangular frames deployed on each side of the boat hull.

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Paupier boat rear view showing the paired frame net details.

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Paupier boat frontal view showing one frame net, and the corresponding forward boom deployed. The forward boom has three suspended electrode droppers.

Field Methods

The need for developing this hybrid system gear was the high inefficiency of traditional electrofishing methods for standardized sampling.

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Illustration of the significant escape response that leads to low capture probability of silver carp when using traditional boat electrofishing gear.

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Process Improves Invasive Carp Sampling Gear

A case study of designing and testing sampling gear to improve catch of a target species

VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/TlRqLIPzN9U

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The Paupier boat trawl is sampling a transect in the Illinois River.

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At the end of a sampling pass, the frame nets are lifted from the water and swung onto the deck where the cod end will be opened and the catch processed.

Fish Sampling Fundamentals