Skimmers: their development and use in coastal Louisiana

Marine Fisheries Review, Wntr, 1995 by Stephen Hein, Paul Meier

Initially, skimmer nets were licensed as butterfly nets. In 1989, the Louisiana legislature made an unsuccessful attempt to ban skimmer nets via House Bill 669. This bill defined skimmer nets and would have prohibited their use. The introduction of the bill, the controversy surrounding the use of skimmer nets as an undefined gear, the perception that water bottoms were destroyed or altered by the bullet weights and skids, and the belief that this gear allowed excessive harvest of small shrimp discouraged many fishermen from investing in skimmers. The future of the gear was uncertain owing to the general perception that it would go the way of the chopstick net and be declared an illegal gear.

In September 1991, however, the Louisiana Legislature in House Bill 533 legalized skimmer nets and defined them as "a net attached on two sides to a triangular frame and suspended from or attached to the sides of a boat, with one corner attached to the side of the boat and one corner resting on the water bottom. A ski and one end of the lead line are attached to the corner of the frame that rests on the water bottom and the other end of the lead line attached to a weight which is suspended from the bow of the boat."

House Bill 403 of the 1993 Louisiana legislative session further prohibited the tieing of individual skimmer nets together to exceed existing specifications and also prevented the use of any trawl in conjunction with a butterfly or skimmer net. Also, such nets were not supposed to impede or restrict normal navigation.

Since the legalization of skimmers in 1991 and the beginning of license sales by 1992, the number of skimmer licenses has increased while butterfly net and trawl licenses have decreased (Table 1). After Hurricane Andrew swept across coastal Louisiana in August of 1992, many butterfly net platforms and some trawl boats were simply abandoned rather than repaired. These and other circumstances, combined with the fact that many fishermen continue to convert to skimmers, has resulted in fewer sales of butterfly net and trawl licenses (Table 1).

Table 1. - Louisiana resident and nonresident commercial
gear licenses sold. These do not represent numbers
of licensed fishermen since most fishermen fish
more than one net and must have a license for each
net. Source: LDWF License Section.

Year and
type          Skimmer    Butterfly net   Shrimp trawl

Resident
1991                0       7,982          14,949
1992            3,748       4,746          13,866
1993            4,583       3,809          11,349

Nonresident
1991                0          48           3,757
1992               42          32           3,454
1993               56          24           3,216

Gear Description

Of all current legal gears, skimmers most closely resemble butterfly nets. Both gears are "pushed" alongside the vessel, always fished in pairs (except stationary butterfly nets) on the sides of the vessel, held open by some form of metal framework, deployed and retrieved in a similar manner, fished continuously with little or no interruption in fishing time, and subjected to similar legal restrictive measures in mesh size and net dimensions. The gears differ in frame design, the necessity of some form of weight to spread the skimmer net open, a "tickler" chain and lead line on the bottom of the skimmer, and the need of a skid or "shoe" for the skimmer's outer leg to allow operation along the water bottom. The skid is an optional feature on the butterfly net since it is not normally fished along the bottom.