Thomas Drop Net Concept

The purpose of the Thomas Drop Net Concept is to introduce a new method of catching pure schools of surface feding fish with the ability to select only those schools of targeted species which are of desirable size. The method involves a helicopter deployed drop net which is lowered around a selected school of targeted species, pursed, and left floating. When the seiner arrives, they place a transfer sack under and around the drop net, transferring the school to the seiner. At that time, the drop net can be deployed again as targets of opportunity remain available. The goal of this project is to introduce to the commercial tuna fishing industry a new method of selective harvesting made possible by the newly developed Spectra Fiber, thusly keeping the U.S. tuna fleet on the cutting edge of technology. Our Concept will prove to be the most efficient method of harvesting, with the end result being that the highest tonnage and the highest quality tuna will be harvested on a U.S. flag tuna vessel utilizing the Thomas Drop Net Concept. Economically, the increased catch will result in shorter trips for the vessels, along with higher income from higher quality fish.