Commercially Fishing for Crab: Bang or Not? And How Best to Bang?
Many fishing vessels in the Pacific Northwest have installed bang bars (also known as banger bars) to assist crew while they empty Dungeness crab pots into the dump box.
There are a variety of designs and range of heights above the dump box or sorting table. The bang bar design depends on a lot of factors, including vessel design, deck layout, crew preference, and fabricator availability. As vessel owners think about what’s best for their situation, it is important to know how the bang bar design could maximize benefits to crew safety and health.
Ergonomics experts at Oregon State University (OSU) set out to do just that—find the ‘just right’ bang bar configuration.
Crabbing in the Lab
In the lab at OSU, we set up a simulated crab pot landing station without a bang bar and with four ...