Trawling process in which I am very familiar with. Having spent 3 summers working in
the Gulf of Mexico onboard family shrimp boats. I was able to experience a different
lifestyle and learn the process of trawling known as “shrimping” by the locals. This memo
is a process analysis of how a shrimp boat gathers shrimp from ocean floor to your kitchen
table. Trawling is a method of fishing that involves dragging lines of nets through the
ocean. For this analysis I will be describing bottom trawling which drags nets through the
ocean floor to collect ground fish like shrimp, rockfish, cod, and squid.
The captain and crew set their location and are off on a shrimping expedition. Once the
shrimp boat leaves the dock, the crew lowers the outriggers. Lowering the outriggers gives
balance to the boat. Imagine how unstable a boat would be at sea with all that steel
reaching so high up in the air trying to navigate through waves. Once the outriggers are
down, the shrimp boat is as stable and seaworthy as any boat out in sea. The outriggers
main purpose is to keep each side of the nets from the other side as far as possible to
prevent the trawl nets becoming tangled. It also keeps the boat from rocking so much.
Before trawling, the captain checks navigation equipment for any discrepancies on the
ocean floor. Anything that may disrupt the trawling process on the ocean floor such as the
ocean floor being too deep for the trawls or reefs/objects that may tear the trawl net. If the
