In 1981-82 the cost of fuel and oil in the Northern Prawn Fishery amounted to 25% ($M23.65) of the total costs for a prawn trawler (Hundloe 1984). In the East Coast Prawn Fishery, fuel and oi 1 amounted to 24% ($M9.77) of the costs (BAE 1984). In recent years the dramatic rise In fuel prices has prompted many people to look closely at ways of reducing fuel costs. Much of this work has been directed towards improving the engineering performance of trawl gear. Van Marlen ( 1982) showed that total gear drag could be reduced by using larger meshes in the fore parts of midwater trawls. Chopin ( 1982) suggested that US shrimp trawls could have gear drag reduced by increasing the mesh size of the fore parts of the trawl. The design of more efficient otterboards (Karlsen 1982), (Lee and Mel lwane 1982), (Wray 1986) could also reduce the total gear drag as might the correct choice of angle of attack (FAO 1974), (Wray 1986).

The large variation in net designs, otterboard sizes and otterboard angles used in similar prawn fisheries in Australia has led many fishermen to question the choice of particular combinations of trawl gear.

This paper is the result of a joint submission by the Spencer Gulf and West Coast Prawn Boat Owners Association and the Australian Maritime College, Launceston, Tasmania to the Fishing Industry Research Trust Account (FIRTA). The performance of different combinations of conventional trawl gear used In the Spencer Gulf Prawn Trawl fishery Is compared with three East Coast prawn trawl gears.