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Latest Akraberg trawler arrives

FACTORY TRAWLER AKRABERG DELIVERED TO FAROESE OWNERS

The latest in a series of trawlers operated by Faroese fi shing company Framherji to carry the Akraberg name has been delivered by Norwegian shipbuilder Vard

New Akraberg replaces the trawler built in 1994 as Guðbjörg that has fi shed for the company since being acquired from Iceland in 2013, and which is now back in Iceland as Snæfell.

Built at Vard’s Braila yard in Romania and brought to the shipbuilder’s Brattvag facility for outfi tting, this is one of the most advanced factory vessels in service anywhere in the world. Akraberg is an 84-metre, 16.7-metre breadth Vard 8 03 design. This is a development of the Vard 8 02 that has already performed successfully for Norwegian fi shing operators. Accommodation on board is to an exceptionally high standard, for a crew of 25, all in single, en-suite cabins. Export Finance Norway (Eksfi n) provided Framherji with long-term fi nancing totalling DKK312 million, and the loan has been paid out in part during the construction period up to completion. Eksfi n and Nordea have collaborated on this, and the entire loan amount is guaranteed by Nordea’s seafood department in Ålesund.

Akraberg has a 1,930-cubic metre refrigerated fi shroom, an 830-cubic metre cargo space that can be used for either frozen or chilled catches and 550 cubic metres of ensilage tank capacity for landing biomass that can be processed further ashore.

New tech onboard

The processing setup on board includes a great deal of the latest technology with its advanced catch handling systems for both whitefi sh and shrimp, starting with live fi sh tanks to keep catches in peak condition prior to being passed to the processing deck. The factory deck was outfi tted by Ålesund company Steel-X and has an approximately 100-tonne-per-day throughput capacity in its bank of 12 Teknotherm vertical freezers. The industrial shrimp production line incorporates a cooker and IQF freezer. The deck system is supplied by Seaonics, with four 40-tonne permanent magnet AC Big Drum trawl winches, off ering opportunities for triple-rig trawling. With an all-electric package of equipment, there are eight 18-tonne sweepline winches at the head of the full-length trawl deck and a 22-tonne, 25m3 net drum is mounted over the deck. Seaonics also supplied the three 20-tonnes gilsons, pairs of 16-tonne codend winches and 12-tonne outhaul winches, and a netsounder winch mounted on the aft gantry, as well as auxiliary and stag winches, capstans and the anchor windlass. Cranes supplied by Seaonics are a 3.75t/8m stiff boom unit, plus a pair of 8t/7.5m – 3.75t/16m knuckleboom cranes.

Harmonised power

Akraberg is one of the fi rst stern trawlers outfi tted with Vard Electro’s SeaQ Energy Storage System. This battery system can be fed with power from the permanent magnet winches, and this is harmonised to function with the SeaQ Power Management System for integration with the hybrid diesel-electric propulsion and the 316kW/h battery package. The 4,800kW main engine and 1,790kW auxiliary engine route power to the reduction gearbox and from there to the 4,000mm diameter propeller with a maximum output of 5,700kW. A heat recovery system increases overall effi ciency even further, while the propulsion system as a whole is compliant with the stringent DNV-GL Silent F notation.

8 The advanced

factory vessel was built and outfi tted by Vard

CRABBER-TRAWLER COMBO FROM GASPÉ

The name on the side of the new fi shing vessel delivered by Chantier Naval Forillon isn’t an easy one, but this refl ects the Listuguj Mi’gmaq Government’s optimism for commercial fi sheries

In the Mi’gmaw language, Ugjit Mijua’ji’jg means “For Our Children” and the new vessel is the latest to be delivered to the Listuguj Mi’gmaq Government, an indigenous Canadian community on Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula.

Designed by Navanex, the 19.81-metre LOA by 7.31-metre beam vessel has a layout that allows it to be rigged for fi shing with traps snow crab for part of the year, with a clear aft deck capable of stacking 150 collapsible crab pots. To switch to trawling for shrimp or other demersal species, a gantry with twin net drums can be mounted over the stern, and a platform forward is prepared for a pair of trawl winches to be mounted. Ugjit Mijua’ji’jg is built in steel and has a raised fo’c’sle with an aluminium wheelhouse. Accommodation for a crew of up to seven is forward in the raised fo’c’sle with the galley and mess in the aft part of that space.

Proven stabilisation

A newly designed bulbous bow, in addition to improving fuel effi ciency, helps reduce pitching when working gear into a swell. A pair of stabilisers, follow a design fi rst installed by Chantier Naval Forillon on the trawler Fundy Leader in 2006. A number of these systems have proven eff ective on other vessels. The stabiliser is a steel plate, hinged at the bottom on the bilge chine. It can be hydraulically raised fl at against the hull or lowered to a horizontal position. According to Chantier Naval Forillon’s technical director Jean-Nil Morissette, this system is eff ective in dampening motion both when steaming or when working gear. Propulsion power is provided by an IMO-compliant tier III, Cummins QSK19 producing 750hp at 1,800rpm, coupled to a Twin Disc MGX-5222 gear with 5.04:1 reduction. This turns a four-blade Rice Kaplan Skewed propeller with a 57-inch diameter and a 67-inch pitch. The prop’s thrust is enhanced with a Rice Speed nozzle. This system will give the vessel a cruising speed of nine knots and a bollard pull of 8.2 tonnes.

Increased effi ciencies

To meet the IMO tier III emissions, the QSK19 main engine is fi tted with an SCR after treatment including DEF (diesel exhaust fl uid) injection unit. The system utilises pressurised air to atomize the DEF for better mixing and a complete chemical reaction. This system allows for reduced consumption of DEF. Multiple housing and confi gurations are available for these SCR aftertreatment systems. Cummins technicians were able to take advantage of the signifi cant space between the engine room deckhead and the top of the QSK19 main engine. The arrangement allows ample access to the main engine while facilitating ready access for technicians to the service panel. The engine and aftertreatment system are integrated, controlled and monitored through an electronic interface which displays system out NOx and NOx conversion effi ciency on a monitor in the wheelhouse. On trials, the wheelhouse monitor reported NOx reduction of 91.2%. The comprehensive set of deck equipment includes a Heila HLM 3-2S deck crane. For crabbing there is a crab hauler, crab table, crab boom and crab block. For trawling, in addition to the two trawl winches and net drums, there is a bag winch. The anchor winch is mounted so that the anchor will lower to the starboard side of the bulbous bow. Auxiliary power includes a Cummins QSB7-DM genset producing 65 kW and an additional QSM11-DM engine producing 355hp at 1,800rpm. This engine drives the vessel’s hydraulic pumps and a back-up 65kW genset.

8 Ugjit Mijua’ji’jg throwing a clean wake on sea trials

8 The bright red,

IMO-compliant tier III, Cummins QSK19 delivers 750hp at 1,800rpm

TERSAN TAKES NEW TRAWLER ORDER

Turkish shipyard confi rms it is building a factory freezer trawler for Nordbank Hochseefi scherei GMBH from Germany, a subsidiary of Parlevliet & Van der Plas

With the building number NB1108, the 88.1-metre long and 18.3-metre-wide vessel – to be called Jan Maria – will be outfi tted with fully integrated onboard grading, fi lleting, processing and freezing systems.

Jan Maria will have triple trawling capabilities and be outfi tted with a shrimp factory, an advanced fillet factory and a fi shmeal and fi sh oil factory plant. Additionally, there will be arrangements for a fully automatic freezing system for fillets and shrimp (including tunnels). The vessel will be arranged with cargo holds with individual cooling elements. Decks will be made from steel and be painted with special anti-skid paint system for safe forklift operation. There will also be a transport system for palletised products from processing deck to cargo holds and the pallets will be individually wrapped before taking into cargo holds. The Skipsteknisk-designed vessel will have accommodation up to 45 people on board with spacious and comfortable living places. With a 7000 kW Wä rtsilä main engine, Jan Maria will be capable of effi ciently trawling in icy and arctic waters. It is planned the newbuild will be delivered in the third quarter of 2023.

8 Jan Maria will

be delivered in the third quarter of 2023

FULL-CONTROL BLUESTREAMS

It has taken a few years, and the pandemic that temporarily brought travel to a halt didn’t help in the development process, but the extended test phase for Thyborøn Trawldoor’s fully controllable trawl doors is over

According to the company’s Henrik Andreassen, the feedback from the skipper and crew of Swedish pelagic vessel Themis, which was the test bench for the controllable Type 32s, has confi rmed that the systems work as expected.

“We are that satisfi ed with the feedback from Themis and we have now made these trawl doors 100% available commercially. We’re open to supplying and customising systems for each of our customers who need a set of controllable doors,” he said, commenting that Themis has used the doors for a variety of fi sheries and the crew are convinced that there are advantages compared to older regular pelagic doors. The fi rst commercial pairs have also been supplied, with Shetland pelagic vessel Serene taking a pair of the new doors after spending time in Skagen for maintenance, during which a short trial with the 15-square-metre doors was carried out. In co-operation with Seamech, the Thyborøn team also mounted the new acoustic hydrophones alongside Serene’s existing underwater array, and the software for the controllable pelagic doors was incorporated into the wheelhouse systems.

We’re open to supplying and customising systems for each of our customers who need ‘‘ a set of controllable doors

Henrik Andreassen, Thyborøn

“On the trials with Serene we shot the doors with a preset to maintain them at 30 metres below the surface. This was tested with diff erent warp lengths and everything stayed in line,” Henrik Andreassen said. The depth pre-set is just one of the array of features that allow the doors to be controlled during a tow via the wireless communication system. “The feedback from Themis was that this is very benefi cial when the crew are asleep and the skipper wants to make a small adjustment during the night. He can just change the setup on the trawl doors without having to wake up four or fi ve guys,” he said. Previously, Thyborøn had developed its Flipper doors, in which upper and lower panels could be folded back to adjust the overall surface area of the doors, and the manually adjustable doors with a hydraulic pump used to make alterations to the aspect of the foils whenever the skipper needed to make a change between tows. There’s also a safety aspect to this, as now that this is done remotely, the crew no longer need to go near the doors for adjustments to be made The surface area of the controllable Type 32 Bluestreams can be adjusted by up to 27% using the remote technology installed on board the catching vessel. “If you have 15-square-metre doors, then you have every size covered all the way down to 10.95 square metres. This is a real benefi t for vessels operating across diff erent fi sheries,” he commented.

Serene sailed home from Skagen with its new 15-squaremetre doors hung at the stern ready for use, as well as with a second set of 15 square metre Bluestreams on board for Antares, and these are already prepared for the full-control technology.

8 The fully-

controllable Bluestream doors hung at Serene’s stern

8 Shooting

away Serene’s controllable doors during sea trials off Skagen

FAST AND FLEXIBLE

The development of Vónin’s Falcon and Falcon+ pelagic trawls has echoed the evolution of the mackerel fi shery over recent years, most recently with the Faroese fl eet switching to this type of gear as the nature of the fi shery has changed

“Until a few years ago, mackerel in Faroese waters were mainly on large, tight marks, and the gear that fi shed well on this was a trawl with a wide opening and a long belly – and there was no need to tow too fast. Up to fi ve knots was enough for mackerel,” explained Vónin’s Frederick Hansen.

In contrast, fi shing in Greenland and other grounds further west has presented diff erent challenges, with more scattered fi sh sitting high in the water, and the crucial diff erence is that these are larger, faster-swimming fi sh. So when fi shing in Faroese waters changed in the same way, with the fi shery to the north of the Faroese zone and into international waters, the fl eet with its heavier gear that had worked well on smaller mackerel was left at a disadvantage.

The Falcon is a speedy hunter, hence the name we used for this compact ‘‘ trawl design

Frederik Hansen, Vónin

This was where the lightweight Falcon trawl with its shorter belly quickly came into its own with the Faroese fl eet, having already performed well for Greenlandic trawlers. “The Falcon is a speedy hunter, hence the name we used for this compact trawl design,” Frederik Hansen said. “Some of the fl eet were able to get trawls that had already been used in Greenland, plus we also had one Falcon 1920 trawl in stock that had been available for hire, so that came into use as well. These pelagic vessels all did much better as they adapted to fi sh with lightweight trawl gear that would let them tow at 5.5 knots or more and be fl exible in manoeuvring to target marks of fast-swimming mackerel.” The next development was the Falcon+. This is much the same trawl, but the forward section has been reengineered to close off the space between the upper and lower sweeplines with large-mesh netting. “This eff ectively extends the wings of the trawl all the way forward to the doors, creating a trawl with extremely long wings,” he explained. The fi rst of these ultra-long-wing trawls was supplied mid-mackerel season last year to JFK’s Borgarinn, and despite the crew’s concerns about handling the gear on board, there were no problems. “This trawl worked very well for Borgarinn,” he said. “It’s a key factor in this fi shery to be able to manoeuvre quickly. Especially if the mackerel are heading in a diff erent direction, in a tight turn there’s a danger of losing the fi sh that’s in the trawl mouth out between the sweeplines. So these extended wings herd the fi sh more eff ectively into the gear.” He added that the development process hasn’t ended there, and more of Vónin’s Capto rope is now going into the construction of these trawls, now taking this all the way back to the 2000mm meshes. “Even if the mesh sizes and the rope dimensions are the same as before, using Capto rope in these meshes makes the trawl lighter and better to tow. Now the season for mackerel is about to start and we’re waiting to see what this fi shing patterns are going to look like,” he said, adding that Vónin’s Twister doors have been shown to be a perfect fi t with the Falcon trawls. “These are very good doors. When the mackerel are high in the water, these doors will stay stable at fi ve or ten metres below the surface. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback on these.”

8 JFK’s pelagic

vessel Borgarinn was the fi rst to use one of the ultralong-wing Falcon+ pelagic trawls for mackerel

INNOVATIVE CRABBER WIN FOR CARSOE

Norwegian shipowner Ervik Havfi ske AS has chosen Carsoe to deliver the onboard shrimp and crab processing factory for its new fi shing vessel, Ny Frøyanes

Ny Frøyanes will also be the fi rst ever crab vessel installed with a moonpool. The moonpool is expected to lead to more effi cient fi shing as the vessel is less vulnerable to tough weather. It is also designed to ensure gentler handling of the catch.

According to Carsoe, a primary focus in the production design has been to reduce the steam from cooking the crab catch. Therefore, a carefully planned production fl ow encapsulates the steam and prevents it from being released to the production environment.

This may very well set a new standard for safe onboard processing ‘‘ of crab

Bjørn Ståle Bjørkavåg, Carsoe

Carsoe Senior Sales Manager Bjørn Ståle Bjørkavåg explained, “We are very proud to contribute to this innovative vessel with a ground-breaking cooking process. This may very well set a new standard for safe onboard processing of crab.” On the vessel’s factory deck are two complete processing lines – one for shrimp and one for crab. A side from the innovative crab cooking equipment, the crab line also includes a butchering station, and the capacity to grade and clean, freeze and glaze of up to 20 tonnes of crab legs per day. The dual shrimp processing line includes by-catch separators, grading and cooking. Cooked shrimp are frozen in two IQF freezers with a daily capacity of 22 tonnes of IQF frozen shrimp. Also, fi ve vertical freezers ensure a 20-tonne capacity for shrimp in blocks. Following the processing lines, all fi nished products proceed to a compact solution for automatic sorting of the products. Each product type is then palletised in clean pallets for minimum handling on shore. The Carsoe factory deck also includes an elevator to the cargo hold as well as an offl oading elevator shipside with fl exible offl oading height towards quayside, compensating for high and low tides. Ervik Havfi ske mainly fi shes for cod, haddock, ling, tusk and catfi sh in the North Atlantic.

8 Ny Frøyanes will

be the fi rst ever crab vessel built with a moonpool

Arctic scalloper gets connected

Norwegian company Tau Tech is to begin sustainable scallop harvesting in the Barents Sea and will use Inmarsat’s maritime broadband service Fleet Express.

While traditional seabed dredging of scallops has not been allowed by Norwegian authorities for 30 years, due to its damaging effects on marine ecosystems, in cooperation with the Institute of Marine Research, the Directorate of Fisheries and other leading marine experts, Tau Tech has proven over the past five years that its technology makes it possible to identify, select and sort shells without destroying surrounding vegetation and life.

The company’s new approach to scallop harvesting will start this autumn with the aim to revive the harvesting of the resource at a commercial scale.

“Our unique precision seabed harvesting technology enables us to harvest seafood gently, yet efficiently without damaging their fragile surroundings,” Tau Tech’s Technical Manager Jan Rogne explained. “Inmarsat’s Fleet Xpress installed on our vessel Arctic Pearl, will help us to carry out our operations in a sustainable way and allow us to adopt new services and applications to further enhance operational sustainability, safety and security as new challenges arise.”

According to Inmarsat, the Arctic Circle represents a rapidly growing connectivity region for high-quality broadband, with increasing requirements from maritime customers and its GX10A and 10B satellites will be the world’s first mobile broadband payloads dedicated to the Arctic region.

REPORT: SEAFOOD DEMAND WEAKENING

Persistently high production costs will undermine sales in the second-half of 2022, determines new analysis from the RaboResearch unit of Rabobank

Compared to the end of 2021 and the start of 2022, the global demand for seafood can be expected to be softer in the closing six months of this year. That’s according to Rabobank’s Global Aquaculture Update 2H 2022.

Subtitled “On the Brink of Recession”, this analysis also forecasts salmon and shrimp farmers are likely to see their profi ts decline from recent highs, and that the remaining months of this year may be challenging. According to Rabobank, both production sectors experienced record demand and prices in the fi rst half of this year, but that the supply dynamics have been very diff erent, with a strong supply growth in shrimp and the largest contraction (-6%) in the salmon supply since 2016. The report states that recessionary dynamics have already started in both the EU and the US in the midst of their pandemic recoveries, and that this will lead to cooling foodservice demand and a switch back to retail in both regions.

This could be the beginning of a long challenging period in the US ‘‘

Gorjan Nikolik, Rabobank

It also suggests that China presents “an unpredictable factor” in the second-half of the year and that its rising demand for imported seafood could potentially present an upside for both shrimp and salmon producers, especially in the fourth-quarter. This is as long as COVID-related lockdowns and import restrictions are not re-introduced, it off ers.

Chinese hopes

Rabobank’s Senior Global Specialist – Seafood Gorjan Nikolik, who compiled the report commented that the US remains a strong demand driver for seafood, but that foodservice demand is clearly declining. “This could be the beginning of a long challenging period in the US. But China has the potential to be the key driver of demand for shrimp, and possibly salmon, in Q4 2022,” Nikolik said. “Though we remain optimistic that China will once again become an important driver of shrimp and salmon demand before the end of the year, COVID lockdowns and import restrictions greatly decrease the probability.” The report also projects that feed, freight and energy costs will remain high and could increase in the secondhalf of this year. For salmon farmers, a large part of 2021 and the fi rst-half of 2022 was marked by record profi tability, driven entirely by high price levels, it highlights. And it forecasts that prices will partly normalise but remain high through to the end of 2022. For Europe, Rabobank reckons the Nordic salmon industry will experience a supply recovery in the second-half of this year but will also face lower (albeit still high) prices. However, due to the long production cycle, high feed costs have yet to be fully incorporated into the cost function. The analysis says these dynamics will combine to reduce farmer profi tability in the closing six months of 2022. And yet, the industry is still expected to generate healthy positive margins, it states.

Market constraints

In contrast, Rabobank projects that if the shrimp supply continues to expand as it did in the fi rst-half of this year or if demand further declines due to recessionary consumer behaviour, then prices could fall below breakeven for farmers. It said that in some cases, this has already happened, adding that “as in many other agricultural sectors, supply only responds when farmer profi tability is clearly impacted”. The US and EU markets drove shrimp demand in 2021 and the early part of this year, but the report anticipates that this growth is “likely to cool off ” as infl ation has been reducing disposable incomes in the second-half of 2022. China’s demand is hard to predict, it says, explaining that shrimp imports improved strongly but are still below pre-pandemic levels. With regards to key shrimp production areas, Rabobank advises that Ecuador continues to rapidly increase its output, despite the lower prices, while India is unlikely to match the harvests it achieved in the second-half of last year. Export growth continues in both Vietnam and Indonesia. “We remain optimistic about the long-term prospects of the shrimp industry but expect a challenging period in the short term,” Nikolik said. Meanwhile, the analysis confi rms that the fi shmeal supply remains relatively stable, and the record-high prices of vegetable substitutes are making marine ingredients relatively competitive in feed formulas.

8 The rising shrimp

supply could see more and more producers struggling to achieve breakeven prices

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