Sinking depth of tuna longlines related to mainline materials in the North Pacific Ocean

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide useful information for fishermen in the manner of investigation a sinking speed of current type tuna longline gear at the North Pacific Ocean as a new developed tuna longline fishing ground. The sinking depth of mainline in connection with different basket was investigated. The experiments were also performed with different materials such as Supermansen (i.e., PE) and Hitech (i.e., PA) for the mainline to investigate the sinking depth of mainline and hooks. Furthermore, the relation between the sinking depth of hooks and catches are investigated also. The sinking depth of mainline at the first and the last shooting basket shows deeper than that of middle part of a basket due to reduced shortening ratio. The sinking depth of mainline and hook with Hitech material shows more shallow than that of Supermanse material, even the Hitech case was designed to sink deeper than that of Supermanse case. The highest catches arise at the middle part basket as the hook number 7 with around 248m sinking depth. From the results, longline with Hitech material is needed to increase the sinking force for reaching the relevant sinking depth. Moreover, the current strength at the North Pacific Ocean will be considered for further commercial fishing.