Applications: Weighing on Every Type of Vessel

What a vessel needs from a scale depends on what it catches, processes or samples, how much deck space it has and which rules apply to its catch. A trawler crew weighs and labels boxes of sorted fish. A factory vessel grades, batches and packs product in a processing deck. A fisheries research vessel weighs individual specimens and sub-samples to a fraction of a gram. A small longliner needs a compact scale that copes with spray and limited power, and an aquaculture well boat handles large volumes of live fish.

The pages below take each vessel type in turn. They describe the typical weighing tasks on board, the conditions a scale has to cope with, the rules that shape weighing and labelling, and the scale types that fit, from bench scales and platform scales to scientific scales and catch registration and traceability systems.

For the underlying physics, read why ordinary scales fail at sea. For EU catch weighing obligations, see EU fisheries control weighing rules.