The Agassiz Trawl, originally named "Blake-Trawl, was described by Alexander Agassiz (1888). The Agassiz Trawl (AGT) was designed to catch megabenthos, lager benthic organisms like crustaceans (prawns, crabs), echinoderms (sea urchins, starfishes), mollusks (snails, clams, squid) or demersal fishes.
It consist of a horizontal beam with runners at both sides. The runners carry the net and the bottom chains.
The main feature is that the gear works on either side.
For this purpose the beam, the runners and the net are constructed axially symmetric. For this reason, and unlike to standard beam trawls, the AGT is suitable for deep sea deployments.
The towing cable system consists of three 10 mm stainless steel wires (crow’s foot) combined in one steel-ring in the front. The center cable with a length of 520 cm, breaking load (BL) 7 tons, is attached to the middle of the beam by zinc coated shackles of 2.5 to working load limit (WLL).
The two side cables with a length of 550 cm each, breaking load (BL) 7 tons, are attached to the front of the runners by zinc coated shackles of 2.5 to working load limit (WLL).
The frame consist of three elements: The AGT Beam is 3.6 m long (tube wall 1 cm). The shape of the two runners is symmetrically drop-like, 140 cm long, 58 cm high and 10 cm broad with a tread surface of 100 x 25 cm.
Inside the runners four eye bolts are attached. On the front of the runner the adapter for the beam is located.
Beam and runners are only connected by the traction forces of the chains and cables (no bolts orscrews).
The nominal diving depth is 10000 m (1000 bar).