After a very long "drought", it is very encouraging to see how many new fishing and aquaculture service boats are being launched globally. Even more encouraging is the fact that so many of them appear to be well-built, safe and innovative. Many are also versatile and some are conversions from other roles. It shows that you can never give up and write off a sector of the maritime industry. No matter how bad things look, all sectors eventually recover.
Fishing and aquaculture have endured nearly three decades of abuse from green zealots, mismanagement by anti-fishing bureaucrats, and self-inflicted wounds from irrational over-investment and excessive borrowing. It has been a very bad time for the industry in most parts of the world. Now, fortunately, there seems to be a bright light at the end of the tunnel.
Over the coming week we will present to you a wide range of sizes and types of fishing and aquaculture vessels from many parts of the world. They range in size from a sleek 67-metre, wide-ranging oceanic tuna seiner with massive freezing capacity, down to a 12-metre "pocket" trawler and a fast 10.4-metre fish farm crew boat. We even have a very impressive conversion of a 73-metre former platform supply vessel into a powerful and well-equipped crab catcher and processor for the Russian western Arctic.
Others will work in the North Sea, the English Channel, the Bay of Biscay and in the southern Atlantic, off Argentina. They are mostly of steel construction with some substantial aluminium, FRP, and stainless steel components. All but one have propellers and the other, twin waterjets. All show considerable design flair and appear to have been constructed so as to cope with anything the sea can throw at them in their operational areas.
Obviously, two swallows, or even seven fishing boats, don't a summer make, but they offer a very encouraging sign of recovery in this very important sector.
– "Finding a four-inch-long salmon in this environment is all about knowing where to fish and how to get around the river without getting stuck on a sandbar or losing one's way."
– "The conversion also entailed the construction of a new freezer hold of significant capacity."
– "Originally completed as an offshore supply vessel in 1974, Alaska Spirit was converted to a factory trawler in the 1990s."
Remember to come back every day to see the latest news, opinion and vessel reviews!
Any news or views about the global commercial fishing and aquaculture industries? Send it through to editor@baird.com.au ASAP (between now and May 28), so we can add it to this current edition of Fishing and Aquaculture Week!
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