The picture shows the relative size of a pelagic trawl in the redfish fisheries. The picture shows the relative size of a pelagic trawl in the oceanic redfish fishery. Fully extended, the opening of the trawl may be 23,000 square meters which equals roughly the size of five football fields. Gillnets Gillnets are placed on the ocean floor and have been adapted to many different fisheries, including cod, haddock, lumpfish, plaice and the trout fisheries. They have different mesh sizes, vary in size and are made from different materials.
Fishing is based on the fish swimming into the net and getting entangled by the gills.
The nets are rectangular and kept vertical by floaters on top and lead-weights at the bottom. Gillnets are used extensively in cod fishing, especially during the late winter season. The nets are about 50 m long. The nets are left for one night and preferably not longer as the fish quality will suffer. Bad weather may, however, delay the nets being attended to and the fish being brought ashore for processing.