Research begins
After ten years of construction, the channel entered service as a laboratory for commercial fishing gear and underwater technology.
V. Belov’s retrospective, 2001 (Russian)The flume tank
in Kaliningrad
Watch the trials live. Discover how a Soviet engineering legacy continues through fishing gear research and practical work with vessel crews.
Live from the tank
Choose a view: the overview camera shows the hall, the underwater camera is submerged during trials, and the PTZ camera offers another view of the facility.
Mon–Fri · 10:00–17:00
Kaliningrad · UTC+2
Kaliningrad · UTC+2
Video only, without audio. These are broadcast hours; trials may not be taking place throughout the stream. Outside these hours, the player shows the next scheduled broadcast.
1979channel commissioned
2020restored by Fishering Service
14 mworking section length
History of the flume tank
From a Soviet experimental facility to Fishering Service’s working research centre. Generations of engineers have used this tank to observe fishing gear underwater.
Both photographs: G. Kushner, “Harvesters of the Sea”, Inventor and Rationalizer, No. 1, 1982, p. 13. View the original magazine (Russian)
Invention No. 813161
The Soviet inventor’s certificate for the tank’s design was published. The application, filed on 14 June 1979, names V. A. Belov and Y. V. Kadilnikov among its authors.
Soviet inventor’s certificate (Russian)Experiments meet computing
A Soviet magazine reported on the tank and work to connect a computer system for processing experimental results. Automation was already part of its development in the early 1980s.
The original report, pp. 12–13 (Russian)The flow was first tested in miniature
Before construction, researchers studied a 1:10 model of the tank to choose a design that would produce an even flow in the working section.
One feature is a vacuum chamber above the water at the working section’s outlet. It helps control the free surface of the flow and improve experimental accuracy.
Decades of
research
The 2001 retrospective covers both Soviet and post-Soviet years. It does not date the individual projects.
A trawl without conventional doors
Research led to a system using rotating towing warps. The Magnus effect generated spreading force, allowing control of the trawl’s opening and operating depth.
Underwater engineering
Studies examined options for raising the submarine Komsomolets and its escape capsule, alongside underwater vehicle behaviour and offshore drilling platform stability.
2020Bringing the water
From our archive: the 2020 year review (Russian)
Bringing the water
back into motion
Fishering Service took a long-term lease on the tank and restored the facility to support a new chapter of experimental work.
The company renewed the propeller assembly, motor controls and glazing, and equipped a classroom. New trials began that autumn.
Help from an original installer
A 2020 report describes how the team found a specialist who had installed the propeller shaft in the 1970s to help repair it. A 1979 diagram of the main motor’s control system lay on their worktable.
Restoration report, 29 September 2020 (Russian)First in the tank.
Then at sea.
Model trials reveal what is difficult to see from a vessel: the trawl’s shape, the behaviour of its rigging and its response to changing settings. They are a stage in development before testing under real fishing conditions.
Trawls and rigging
We study how a net structure behaves in the flow, compare rigging arrangements and observe how adjustments change trawl geometry. Practical sessions cover seabed contact, the amount of warp paid out and the influence of external forces.
This makes discussion of design changes concrete: participants can work from both a drawing and the model’s actual behaviour underwater.
Trawl doors
Doors provide the horizontal spread of a trawl system. Their development involves comparing spreading force, drag and stability at different angles of attack.
We test experimental prototypes in the tank, including models made using 3D printing. The company described this work on new ATLANTIKA and CLIPPER series doors in 2024.
Research and professional training (Russian)
Practical sessions for your team
Join online.
Or at the tank.
- 01Discuss your taskReview fishing conditions and your team’s questions.
- 02See adjustments at workObserve the model in the flow and the effect of changes.
- 03Review the resultConnect your observations with work on board.
A shared language
for designers and crews.
Seminars combine theory with observation of a working model. Skippers and trawl masters discuss adjustments with fishing gear designers, while students encounter the challenges they will face in practice.
The company works with Kaliningrad State Technical University and Kaliningrad Marine Fishery College. The tank connects classroom learning, engineering and the experience of fishing crews.
Practical training and education partnerships (Russian)Discuss gear settings
or a practical session.
Tell us about your task — adjusting fishing gear or arranging a practical session for your team, online or at our flume tank.
Historical sources and photo credits
- G. Kushner: “Harvesters of the Sea”, 1982, pp. 12–13 (Russian).
- Soviet inventor’s certificate No. 813161, 1981 (Russian).
- V. Belov: a twenty-year retrospective, 2001 (Russian).
- V. Zyuskin: MarINPO’s experimental facilities, 1999 (Russian).
- VNIRO: Yuri Kadilnikov’s biography (Russian).
- A report on the restoration, 2020 (Russian).
- KSTU: history and design of the MarINPO channel, pp. 38–39 (Russian).
- Federal Agency for Fishery: reopening after refurbishment, 27 October 2020 (Russian).
- Fishering Service: 2020 year review and archive photograph (Russian).
- Fishnews: a practical seminar on trawl adjustments, December 2023 (Russian).
- Fishnews: research, training and model photographs, 20 December 2024 (Russian).
