Fishermen have been practicing net mending for centuries, a necessity out at sea or back on land as the mesh often tears when fish are hauled in. Hudson River Fisheries staff learns and practices this skill to repair nets used daily throughout the monitoring season.
Gill nets of the size of the photo on the right are used to catch juvenile Atlantic sturgeon. This net is made of monofilament; mending requires a special needle, also called a fid, which has twine wound around the middle. Holes in nets are common, mostly as a result of getting snagged on rocks or debris or when fishers cut the meshes to retrieve caught fish. Torn nets don’t fish properly and mending is critical so that biologists know the exact area of gear they are fishing in order to calculate the catch-per-unit effort, the basis of good data collection.
Net mending is a skill that takes a high level of expertise, as well as a good dose of patience. The net has to be rebuilt so that it is the same  as the original net, in order for it to “fish” the same way. This involves tying twine so that it does not slide and the knot does not come undone. The mender also has to be able to visualize what the net should look like and how many meshes there should be, which can be difficult when the hole is large. For an amateur net mender, it is very easy to get to the end of a hole she or he has been mending and realize that the top of the net no longer matches the bottom, or that she’s left with a five or six sided mesh when she should have only four-sided diamond shapes. Fisheries biologist Mo Grassi (above and right) is no amateur–she’s the resident expert! |
Hudson RiverNet
