TRAWLING, a mode of fishing by a net dragged along the bottom of the sea, behind a boat. It is much employed in deep-sea fishing on the coast of England, and by far the greater part of the fresh fish brought to the London market, herring and mackerel excepted, is now obtained by trawling. Trawling has long been practiced on some parts of the s. coast of England, but of late years this mode of fishing has been adopted much more extensively than before, and has been introduced where it was formerly unknown, particularly on the e. coast of England, not without great opposition on the part of line fishers and others, who have loudly complained of injury done by it to the fisheries by destruction of spawn, and otherwise. The report of the commissioners on the sea fisheries of the United Kingdom, 1866, sets aside all complaints against it, however, as unfounded; while its great productiveness recommends it as advantageous to the public interest. The trawl, or as is often called, is a triangular purse-shaped net, about 70 ft. long, usually having a breadth of about 40 ft. at the mouth, and gradually diminishing to 4 or 5 ft. at the commencement of the cod, or smaller end of the net, which is about 10 ft. long, and of nearly uniform breadth. The upper part of the mouth is secured to a wooden beam about 40 ft. long, which keeps the net open; this beam is supported on two upright iron frames, known as the or irons. The under side of the net corresponds with the upper, except that instead of being fastened to a beam, it is made with a deeply-curved margin attached to the the whole length of it in contact with the ground. A trawl has also generally two pockets, one ou each side, made by lacing together the upper and under parts, so that fish turning back from the cod may be caught in them. The meshes vary in size from 4 in. square at the mouth to an inch and a quarter square in the cod. Two stout ropes, of about 15 fathoms each, are fastened, one to the front of each of the trawl-heads, the other ends united to form a bridle, to which is shackled a warp 150 fathoms long. By this'warp the trawl is towed, the quantity of rope paid out depending on depth of water, weather, and oilier conditions. Trawling is generally in the direction of the tide, sometimes across it, but
never against it. The rate of progress is usually only from m. to 2 m. an hour faster than that of the stream. The trawl can only be used with advantage on a sandy bottom or-other smooth ground. On rough ground the net would be torn in pieces. The vessels employed in trawling on the Dogger bank and elsewhere near the English coast vary in size from 35 to 60 tons. Many of these trawlers, however, stay out -at sea for six weeks at a time in all seasons of the year; their fish being packed in ice collected by fast-sailing cutters, and so conveyed to market. Cod, haddock, and other white-fish are caught in great numbers by trawling; and some kinds of flat-fish, as soles, -are scarcely to be obtained by any other means. Smaller trawl-nets than those above described are used in bays and estuaries. A kind of trawl called the pole-trawl was formerly in use in some parts of England, but is now used only in the s. of Ireland. It is much less effective than the beam-trawl. Instead of a beam, two poles of 25 to 30 ft. long are used, rigged out on the sides of the vessel, to keep the mouth of the net open.
The term trawling is commonly, although incorrectly, employed in Scotland to desig nate a particular mode of herring-fishing. which, however, is only seine-net fishing (see Nrrs) on the principle of encircling shoals of fish, as has been practiced in pilchard-fish ing on the s. coast of England from time immemorial. It is of recent introduction in Scotland, and has been opposed by the drift-net herring-fishers, from interested motives, in the same way that beam-trawling has been opposed on many parts of the English coast. The legislature too hastily accepted the views of its opponents; but a royal com mission basing been appointed to inquire into the subject, made a report decidedly favorable to it in 1863; and the judgment of that commission was sustained by the report of the sea-fisheries commission of the United Kingdom in 1866.