The History of GLORIA

Icelandic fisheries reached a turning point in 1989 following changes in the Icelandic quota system. Freezer trawler operator were forced to target species which were not regulated by quotas. Hampidjan took part in this drive by designing the Gloria midwater trawl. The first vessels set off in April 1989 in search of oceanic redfish, which Russian trawlers were known to catch with mid-water trawls in the Irminger Sea, Southwest of Iceland.

After some teething troubles, successful fishing techniques were developed for the Gloria midwater trawl. The first trawls measured 1,152 metres in circumference and the largest meshes in them were 32 metres long. The crews didn't like the look of these new trawls to begin with, but they were quick to adopt the new gear and used it with good results.

Slowly but surely the midwater trawls got larger, and so did the biggest meshes in them. The largest midwater trawls produced by Hampidjan are 3,600 metres in circumference with 256 metre maximum mesh size. Common sizes for Gloria trawls today are from 604 metres to 2,560 metres in circumference. The advantage of using the Gloria trawls, is that they cover a very large area, because of their huge sizes. They are easy to tow, due to their super large meshes and heard fish very well when it is dispersed.

Such huge meshes can be difficult to work with, and various types of rope have been used. Eight different types or generations of materials have been used in all. The Braided Gloria rope has proved best for giant meshes. They are stiff, they twist or tangle insignificantly, and are colour coded, which is very important when handling such huge meshes.

Netting materials in the aft belly, from the 4,000 millimetres mesh, are twisted or braided Polyethylene, Nylon and Dynex netting, all depending on fishing conditions.

Various kinds of headline, breast line and footrope have been used. At first, only steel wire rope was used for the whole frame of the trawl with weights on lower-wing ends. Today, headlines and breast lines are made from braided Dynex rope, Footropes from chains and the wing-ends from coated Dynex Rope. The trawls are much easier to operate and handle both for fishermen and netmakers.

Sweeplines have been developing gradually. Tests have been made with Dynex ropes, replacing wire ropes. Skippers in Scotland and Shetland have rapidly increased the usage off Dynex rope in sweeplines in the past three years. Most Skippers are also using Dynex ropes for their backstrop systems. The Dynex ropes are much easier to handle, they do not rust, and float in water because of their low density (0.96). It has been proven that trawls with Dynex sweeplines are easier to tow due to the buoyancy of the rope.

In 1998, Hampidjan entered into a licensing agreement with Martrawl, Seattle U.S.A. and has exclusive rights to manufacture self-spreading trawls under international patents issued and/or pending. This technology has been developed by an independent research laboratory conducting experiments in hydrodynamics with the goal of developing trawls that will better utilise known fish behaviour.

Self-Spreading Technology clearly opens new opportunities for midwater trawl design. This technology is poised to offer substantial increases both in the trawl fishing performance from today's levels and in the health of pelagic fish stocks. Hampidjan is committed to being a leader in this field in the new century, for the benefit of midwater fishing operators, and the resources that support them.

Due to the good result in Irminger Sea, the Gloria trawls are now used in most major fishing zones of the world. The Gloria trawls have been adapted to circumstance in each area and in general 3 types of Gloria trawls are now available. The first type is the High Opening type, were horizontal opening is 30 to 40% greater than the vertical, the second one has the horizontal opening about double to the vertical and the third type has horizontal opening three times bigger than the vertical.