Top West Coast Whiting Boat Endorses WESMAR Hull Sonar

Veteran captain catches 2500 tons in 17 days making the F/V Muir Milach the top boat for its fishing period.

Dave Wilmore, veteran Captain of the 103-foot F/V Muir Milach, just finished the 20-day offshore Spring Whiting season on the US West Coast using his new WESMAR HD860-85kHz 10-inch sonar.  He caught 2500 tons in 17 days making the Muir Milach the top boat for its fishing period. Here is his assessment of the Wesmar sonar.

“The Muir Milach was top boat for its fishing period during the spring offshore season and 25 percent of that was the Wesmar sonar. It is a remarkable and really useful tool. We saw signs at 180 fathoms, which is unheard of with other searchlight sonar. There are a lot of other things on the boat I’d give up before giving up that sonar.

"With this system I can steer into the best part of the sign. I have shorter tows which saves valuable time and fuel.”

"WESMAR really heard what I was saying about my need to avoid the noise of two engines. A lot of twin screw boats fight the double prop noise with their electronics. WESMAR’s designers have taken care of that and prop noise problems have been overcome.“

Captain Dave Wilmore has been running boats for 25 years, 15 of them as Captain of the Muir Milach, part of the Aleutian Spray Fisheries Fleet out of Seattle. He operates with a crew of 3 to 4. During the 20-day Offshore Spring season he offloads at sea to a floating processor. For the Summer shore-side season, which starts in mid June, he delivers his Whiting to Ilwaco, Washington.

Captain Wilmore also has a Wesmar trawl system on board. “It’s about 20 years old and I still use it for every tow.  I have had extreme reliability with WESMAR."

The WESMAR HD860 Sonar has an electronically stabilized sound beam, which allows the Captain to stay on fish even in rough seas.  Captain Wilmore realized the value of this feature as well because during the offshore season on the Oregon/California border he reported 30 to 35 knot winds every day.

“With the WESMAR, the stabilization gyro is in the soundome, so when the transducer scans, the gyro scans with it. Corrections are made in the exact direction the transducer is looking, keeping the sound beam on target. The WESMAR gyro runs 100% of the time."

Pacific Whiting is the most abundant commercial fish species on the U.S. West Coast and supports one of the largest fisheries, by volume, in the United States. This delicate, white-meat fish is used in the production of surimi, and the growing whiting fillet market.