THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PRESERVATIVE FOR GILL NETS

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Abstract
In a search for an adequate preservative for gill nets many attempts were made to synthesize a plastic in the fibres of the twine. The resulting strands in no case possessed such requisite properties as sufficient flexibility and wearing qualities. Strands, treated with a solution of chlorinated pale crepe rubber, to which a plasticizer, dibutyl phthalate, and a bactericide were added, were found, by tensile strength measurements, to prolong the life of the twine in the sea. The strands had the necessary degree of flexibility, and their wearing quality was improved greatly.Tests made by commercial fishermen on sections of net, treated according to the formula recommended, confirm in large measure the laboratory and sea immersion experiments. They report, among other findings, that the net was easier to handle, remained clean, caught an equal catch of fish as the untreated sections, and that the knots did not slip. The strength of the treated net after a summer's fishing, the fishermen found, was only slightly greater than that of the untreated net. This result was not at all in accord with the laboratory tensile strength measurements made on twine after several weeks of sea immersion. An examination of the knots revealed that this difference is due undoubtedly to the fact that the preservative did not penetrate sufficiently into the knots. Nets are now being manufactured from the treated twine; this is expected to overcome the difficulty and increase considerably the life of the net under fishing conditions.

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