The trawl skippers operate wetfish trawlers with a loading capacity of 60 to 80 tonnes of fresh fish packed on ice. Vessels range between 28 and 48 m in length and measure 268 to 838 GRT (Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem 2006). Trips are up to 8 days long. Trawling involves dragging a net behind the vessel across the seabed. During fishing, the net is kept open and close to the ground by heavy metal doors, while the vessel moves at a very slow speed (about 6 km/h). The length of a trawl depends on the amount of fish that is being caught and can be as short as 1 h in the case of “heavy fishing”, and as long as 4 h “when the fish is scarce”, according to the fishers.