A program was initiated by the Southwest Fisheries Center to develop a method of computer simulation of net behavior in the seining process, since there is reason to believe that the analysis would agree with experiment. The reason for this optimism, in face of the fact that real net behavior is very complex, is that the complexity is quantitative rather than qualitative. The action of each part of the net is governed primarily by the parameters of local tension and water drag; thus, the basic interaction is qualitatively relatively uncomplicated. However, because these parameters vary widely over the large physical size of the net, the overall net behavior is complex. The digital computer is ideally suited to handle such quantitatively complex problems.

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