We're seeing quite a boat-building boom in a major fleet that targets Pacific cod and other species off Alaska.
The latest example: Seattle-based Blue North has signed a contract with Dakota Creek Industries of Anacortes, Wash., for a new 191-foot freezer longliner (rendering above).
A freezer longliner is a factory vessel that catches fish with long strings of hooks, then brings them aboard for processing and packing.
Blue North says its new vessel, designed by Skipsteknisk of Norway, will be state-of-the-art.
The boat will feature an internal haul station — a first in the United States. This means the longline will be hauled through a moonpool in the centerline, so crews will "no longer be exposed to rough seas and freezing temperatures for hours on end," a Blue North press release says.
The boat also will be the first purpose-built hook-and-line processing vessel in the country with a molded hull, which should reduce resistance through the water, Blue North says.
The vessel will have diesel-electric propulsion, and accommodation for a crew of 26.
The price of the new longliner wasn't disclosed. The boat is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Blue North says it holds an option to build a second vessel starting late this year.
Two other freezer longline operators are wrapping up construction of new boats.
Petersburg-based Alaska Longline Co. is getting the Arctic Prowler, a 136-footer, from the Vigor yard in Ketchikan.
And Alaskan Leader Fisheries, of Lynden, Wash., ordered the 184-foot Northern Leader from J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding in Tacoma. The Seattle Times reported the cost of the boat at nearly $35 million.
All these fishing companies are part of a trade group known as the Freezer Longline Coalition.
In 2010, Congress passed legislation allowing freezer longliners to establish a fishery cooperative and catch shares in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.
12 comments:
Do they even need a roller man when they haul up thru the middle?
".... targets Pacific cod and other species off Alaska." can be clarified to say bycatch salmon heading to Western Alaska.
Getting ready for the anticipated move into the Arctic Ocean is what I think is happening. They gotta have new boats for the new frontier in the fishing industry.
Ah, the success of corporate bought elections ... of a cheap U.S. Senate seat. "Citizens United" Odd words. What happened to the decades of "independent contractor investments" of the captains and crews who actually fished and earned but did not receive the catcher processor LL quotas in the Western Aleutians? New ships at these cod prices?
Wonder how much the next Alaska Senate seat will sell for, and to whom.
Groundswell
Norwegians: The true arctic water native fishermen, pale skin from the dark days and blue eyes to see in the dark better. Who's been native to the northern climes longer? I'm just sayin'...
What an awesome fish killin' boat.
Sold the old clunkers off to build new ones.
It doesn't take much to fool those with no intuition - a little greed is all that's needed to make a done deal.
So with an internal hauling station, how do you hook up to the flag pole to haul a set? I would assume they must run a line under the boat to the rail, and tie that on to the longline when they haul. But then, what happens when you break off?
Btw, I don't think these guys have much, if any, salmon by-catch!
I bet the roller man would get seasick staring into that hole of surging water.
my dad works for this company as a first mate, and yes there is going to be a roller in the inside, and no this system would not target salmn by catch this longline stays at the bottom floor on cd fishing grounds. its just the same thing but more hi tech fishing systems
It's a very rare occasion when we catch salmon,I see maybe one or two a year in the Bering Sea. And we haul a lot of hooks daily.
Good to hear that this is a clean fishery.
Guess who is being set-up to hold the bag in the Bering Sea when the wealthly fishermen move into the Arctic Ocean with their fancy new boats.
Someone already asked but I will ask again how do you hook off to the end of the line in a moon pool?
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