Subsea Structures - Fishing Gear Interaction

ISO 13628-15, ISO 13628-1 and NORSOK U-001


Steve Jones
Corrosion Management Consultant


All answers are personal opinions only and are in no way connected with any employer.

'Overtrawlable' is different to 'Fishing friendly' in terms of the qualifications required for an overtrawlable structures-its more onerous. Have a look at the NORSOK code listed above

Thanks Chaps. Yeah I've been reading through Norsok but it makes no mention of 'fishing friendly' sructures? I haven't yet got a copy of the ISO-13628 codes but have requested from doc control. Thanks again

Overtrawlable structures have a profile which allows trawl gear to pass over the structure without getting snagged. Fishing loads are reduced, but not eliminated.

Fishing friendly are typically non overtrawlable so fully snag trawl gear. This leads to higher fishing loads. A fishing friendly structure is designed so the envelope has no protrusions. This allows the fishing vessel to back the nets off after snagging the structure and free itself.

Non fishing friendly would snag nets and there would be no way for the vessel to free them.

Sometimes structures are located within an exclusion zone so fishing interaction is not considered.