The ReefShield is designed for government agencies, environmental organisations and community groups to deploy along the margins of marine protection areas to discourage illegal mobile bottom contact fishing.
How It Works
Illegal fishing gear is dragged towards the ReefShield
As the ReefShield is pushed over it begins to spin
One side of the T Plate is lifed to catch the rope
The rope is caught, the chain goes tight, the anchor digs in and the illegal trawler is stopped
The illegal trawler has to reverse to collect its gear, as the rope is pulled up the ReefShield is released
STATUS Feburary 2025: The ReefShield is still in development and to our knowledge has not been tested with operational trawl gear
NEWS: [COMMING SOON] Business case for using the ReefShield to protect the wreck of the RMS Niagara
“The best way to stop something in the ocean is with an anchor”
The ReefShield uses the anchor of your choice to temporarily catch trawl gear.
DESIGN TEMPLATE:
The ReefShield template is released under CC0 (Creative Commons Zero).
You are free to use, modify, share, and distribute it for any purpose, without restriction. No attribution required, but appreciation for ReefShield.org is welcome.
The ReefShield is designed to catch illegal sweep ropes with minimal cost. They are designed to be constructed from 8mm thick steel (4-5kg). The anchor used should vary based on the substrate and size of the boat dragging the ropes. The size and weight of the ReefShield is based on an 8" spherical buoy which should function to a depth of 200m.
To calculate the size of the buoy required for the ReefShield
To calculate the wall thickness of the buoy required for the ReefShield