4.1 Beach Seine

             In terms of net structure, beach seines are of two types; the beach seine with bag and the beach seine without a bag. The net with a bag resembles a trawl net with two wings, the body and the bag or cod-end. The beach seine without a bag has a specialized construction in the central part with more slack and smaller meshes.
             The size of the beach seine depends on the depth of operation, number of fishermen involved, use of banca, availability of pull rope hauler(s) and target species. A majority of the surveyed beach seines have lengths varying from 50 to 200 meters and depths of 2-10 meters. In some nets, the wing uses nylon multifilament 210d/2-210d/9 with a mesh size of 10 mm to 130 mm. The body uses net of 210d/4-6 with 20-35 mm. mesh size while the bag is also 210d/6 but has a finer mesh of 10 mm. Other nets use the Polyethylene B-net with 13 mm. mesh size as the main webbing or wing. The bag portion is sometimes long, but the majority range from 10 to 20 meters. The mesh sizes also vary. The milkfish fry net uses polyethylene net with a diameter of 0.1 mm. and mesh size of 1 mm. The headrope has a length of 10 meters and the net is dragged by two men along the shore.
           In most of the beach seines, pull ropes are usually PE dia. 16mm with length of 100-400 meters. The triangular bridle is PE dia.12mm which is tied to the lower and upper end corners of the wing portion. Bamboo is also used instead of a rope bridle. The numbers of fishermen involved in beach seine operation range from 2-60 fishermen. In some coastal villages, pulling of the pull rope is done by a line hauler which is powered by a gasoline or diesel engine.
           Setting operation also differs, depending on the depth of the water. In shallow water, fishermen just set the 1st pull rope, followed by the net and the 2nd pull rope around a school of fish. In deeper waters, the net is stacked in one banca which may be non-motorized and towed by a motorized banca. The banca tows the net boat while releasing the 1st pull rope, the net, is followed by the 2nd pull rope in encircling the fish school. During the pulling of the ropes some fishermen observe the net underwater and remove the ground rope from snagging coral stones to prevent damage to the net and to facilitate faster pulling of the ropes. Likewise, the pulling of ropes is done simultaneously with proper coordination among the fishermen.