WESMAR Sonar Proves Itself for West Coast Shrimper

The 78-foot Pacific Hooker reports amazing success with the new dual stabilized HD860 hull sonar system.

“WESMAR’s stabilized dual beam sonar helps keep me out of trouble. It protects my nets when going over rocks. I can locate the hard bottom where I risk ruining my nets,” says Buddy King, Captain of the 78-foot FV Pacific Hooker out of Brookings, Oregon. He uses WESMAR’s new dual stabilized beam HD860 in the Shrimp Fishery off the California, Oregon and Washington Coasts, and crabbing in Oregon.

He recently pulled in both his trawl nets one after another, filling up with a deck load of shrimp that overflowed everything. His assessment: “The WESMAR sonar gives good distinction between hard and soft bottom. Without it you can’t see. I use the narrow beam to look far ahead and the wide beam for a more detailed picture of the bottom.

We used the WESMAR to follow the edge between hard and soft bottom. This way we protect our nets and still harvest the fish. These fish were at 80 fathoms.

“Before the WESMAR, the risk of tearing up the net kept me from navigating near a lot of places.” The Pacific Hooker is part of the west coast shrimp trawler fleet. Captain King and his crew filled his boat with a big deck load of pink shrimp 18.5 miles off the coast of Washington.