[shresearchdude]

Aargh! The sea does not yield it's bounty easy.

After the first couple of tows one of the nets had half it's length torn away by the bottom. Then a couple of clean tows - but then all of the net and the gear on it worth $$ was no longer attached to the wire or the doors. The problem with random stations is that sometimes you don't get to tow where the clean, soft, sandy bottom is(or sometimes where the fish are). There are many stations where the capt has to search out an area to tow, there are even areas where we don't tow anymore due to gear loss. We spent a couple of hours trying to find the lost gear with no success and have rigged up another net and it's gear and will continue looking for "good" bottom. There are plans to get a better set of grapple gear from the other boat and go back to the scene of the crime and spend some more time trying to get it back.