‘Unique’ trawler blueprint unveiled

A NORWEGIAN ship design and building company has unveiled a blueprint for a new series of trawlers which are thought to be the near ultimate in sustainable fishing.
The company, Ulstein, said its goal includes gentler handling of fish at sea and the introduction of more environmentally friendly innovations.
It has been working closely on the project – called EcoFive – with Nordic Wildfish, one of the country’s largest catching and processing businesses.
The design, which Ulstein said is unique, is based on experience gained through research and field studies, and offers significant improvements while operating at sea.
Company chief Tore Ulstein said: ‘Nordic Wildfish has solid experience in trawling and in testing new methods for fishery and market. We both have a history of being innovative and come up with advancing solutions.
‘Through this cooperation we have developed improved and state-of-the art solutions for quality and sustainability in trawler fishery.’
Nordic Wildfish CEO Tore Roaldsnes said: ‘We want to turn visions into reality with regards to our EcoFive project.
‘Ulstein’s trawler series is designed to implement solutions for gentle fish catch, effective processing and hydrolysing of the rest of the raw material.
‘This will provide significantly increased sustainability in trawling, better quality, higher efficiency, more earnings and less environmental footprint.’
Among the innovations is one called the X-Bow, which alters the traditional layout of trawler vessel design, and leads to better placement of the crew, the factory and the catch.
The factory is placed on two decks, while all the accommodation is assembled central in the ship. Due to the X-Bow hull line, the fore ship will be efficiently exploited.
Ships carrying the X-Bow feature also have lower vibrations and pitching, which help to improve the working environment on board and reduce noise.
The vessels in the series have a fuel efficient hybrid system which combines batteries with diesel-electric and diesel-mechanical propulsion.
Picture: How the revolutionary trawler will look