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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0077.PDF
8 January 1954 37 FIRST SPOT YOUR FISH . . . u Aircraft as an Aid to Sea Fishing: Potentialities of the Helicopter By M. J, HARDY A IRCRAFT, and more particularly helicopters, are now /% beginning to achieve some prominence as a means of extending the fisherman's range of vision, and the orders recently placed by several British and Norwegian whaling companies for Westland-Sikorsky S.55 helicopters have underlined this fact. These orders are highly significant because, when linked with other new developments in whaling, such as the electric harpoon, they indicate a widening scope for aircraft, whether of fixed- or rotating-wing type, as an aid to spotting fish of many types and sizes. Shortage of steel, increasing costs and renewed German and Japanese competition have all made fleet replacement a finan cially difficult business for owners of all types of ships, so it is not surprising that in some quarters helicopters are regarded as potential successors to the whale catcher. Also, it is not only for finding whales that aircraft have been and are being used. Many other types of fish are caught with the aid of aerial spotting. Like so many seemingly new methods, aerial fish-spotting is, in fact, surprisingly old. As far back as 1920 an aeroplane was used for this purpose in the western Atlantic menhaden* fishery, and it was apparendy successful, in spite of the none-too-reliable motors of those days. In 1921, a Westland Limousine five- passenger cabin biplane, G-EARV, powered by a 450 b.h.p. Napier Lion, was sold to Air. F. S. Cotton, of Sidcot-suit fame, for spotting with the Newfoundland sealing fleets. Use of aircraft as a fishing aid was not, however, immediately exploited, and for a long time they were regarded as an expensive —even an eccentric—luxury which only a few wealthy fishing- boat owners could afford. During the next 25 years aircraft were employed only very occasionally, and then not for spotting, but nearly always on fishery patrol and protection, involving such duties as preventing infringement of territorial waters by foreign trawlers and searching for fishing vessels in distress. A fishery patrol service on Japan's Pacific coast before and during the war was operated by the Tokyo Aviation Co., Ltd., and the Newfound land Government use an aircraft to prevent infringement of their territorial waters. As fishery patrol and protection were usually undertaken by State agencies rather than by private enterprise, it is not surprising that aircraft were used for these duties more often than for actual spotting. In those days when aerial spotting had still to prove its value, chiefly before the war, boat owners were naturally reluctant to spend any of their hard-won profits in buying an aeroplane. But spotting was not entirely neglected in pre-war days; it was used in 1930-32, and has been employed regularly since 1937, in Iceland's herring fisheries, being financed and operated by fishermen on a co-operative basis. In the summer of 1940 Flugfelag Islands H.F. were given a government contract to spot herring shoals for the herring-oil factories on Iceland's north coast, and a Waco YKS biplane seaplane was employed. In 1945 Loftleidir H.F. received a similar contract, and operated a Stinson Reliant seaplane on this work. Norwegian herring fishermen also take advantage of aerial spotting to some extent. It is not surprising that the U.S.A., with its profusion of light aeroplanes of so many types, is the most prolific employer of aircraft for fish spotting, and many of the users are Pacific North- West coast tuna fishermen. Catching certain types of fish found in schools, such as tuna, presents its own peculiar difficulties, as sufficient schools of fish—and of bait—must be found by a tuna clipper before her fuel or provisions run out. If weeks have to be spent searching for fish, and a boat returns with only a partial load, her owner makes little profit, especially if a long round trip —perhaps 5,000-6,000 miles—to the fishing grounds has to be undertaken. It is not surprising, therefore, that many of these clippers—and there are about twice as many operating as before the war—carry an aeroplane or helicopter for spotting. An air craft can cover a far greater area in a given period of time than a masthead observer can, a larger area can be viewed at a given instant, and height can be altered to make sub-surface shoals more easily visible, and to ensure their accurate identification. In 1947, the American Tunaboat Association experimented with a Bell 47 helicopter fitted with nylon pontoon floats instead of wheels, and flying from the clipper American Lady. The canopy over the ship's bait tank, in which bait is kept when caught, was used for taking off and landing. This experiment was successful, take-offs and landings being made without difficulty even in rough seas. A Hiller Model 360 operates from the Van Camp Sea Food Company's clipper Esperito Santo, likewise being fitted with nylon floats and using the ship's tank canopy for landing. Sikorsky S.51s have been operated from fishing boats by the Royal Canadian Air Force. A full-load range of 170 miles (Bell 47) or 130 miles (Hiller 360) shows what a greatly increased radius of search a helicopter can offer its parent ship. Although helicopters have proved successful for tuna spotting, their comparatively high initial and operating cost have made them less popular for this purpose than single-engine floatplanes. Several of these are used by tuna clippers, landing and taking off from alongside their parent ships and being hoisted inboard by a derrick. First tuna clipper to carry a seaplane was named Liberator—she was later sunk in a collision—and several boats owned by Van Camp Sea Food (White Star, Corsair, American Beauty and Chicken-of-the-Sea) carry Luscombe Model 8 Silvaire floatplanes. With a cruising speed of just over 100 m.p.h. this type has a cruising range of 350 miles. Several other Southern California tuna clippers carry a seaplane. A Piper Super Cub is carried by the clipper Senibua, which operates in Australasian waters, and is believed to be the smallest ship of this type to carry an aircraft; the Cub is kept, with wings removed, on top of the bait tanks. Besides tuna clippers other types of fishing vessels carry sea planes. Although a purse seiner is similar to but smaller than a long-range tuna clipper, and has less deck space, at least one has been so equipped. This was Vindicator, owned by P. Martin and J. Rados; she carried a Piper Cub seaplane on the main deck, but there was insufficient space to stow it satisfactorily, and its use was discontinued after a short time, although it had been found valuable for spotting. Sardine spotting, too, has been successfully carried out from the air; the method was pioneered in 1946 by Van Camp's, who operated an aeroplane from Astoria, Oregon. This was land- based, and so operations were limited to a relatively short distance offshore. Late in 1947 this enterprising firm chartered an airship to find out if lighter-than-air craft could be used successfully and economically for fish spotting; but it was too slow, required too large a crew and proved too expensive to justify the results achieved. The same company now operate a Republic Seabee, a Navion and a two-motor amphibian for sardine spotting. These aircraft are shore-based and operate on moonlight nights, when fish can be located by their phosphorescence. Land-based air- This view of a whale factory ship, with a catch floating astern—ft was shown at Mr. A. E. Bristow's recent Helicopter Association lecture on air whaling—gives the pilot's view of a helicopter flight-deck. *A fish of the herring family, valued for its oil.
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