A krill-fishing vessel being designed by Wärtsilä Ship Design Company has been delayed rather than canceled, according to a Shanghai-based design company involved in the construction.
The Shen Lan 2 “will be built,” according to Wang Wanyong, a project manager at HC Marine, a Shanghai-based consultancy, which contracted the design of the Shen Lan 2 to the Finnish-based Wärtsilä Ship Design Company on behalf of Shanghai Chong He Industry Group (also known as Chong He Marine Heavy Industries Co., or CMI).
“Of course, our second krill vessel will be built later. Because of the COVID-19, the plan has been delayed only,” Wang told SeafoodSource.
Wärtsilä was commissioned to design a second krill-processing vessel for CMI. Its existing Shen Lan vessel – launched in 2019 and also designed by Wärtsilä – is one of the world’s largest purpose-built vessels for fishing Antarctic krill.
China began targeting the Antarctic fishery several years ago, and several Chinese companies announced their entrances into the scene with the construction of new vessels. But a rise in shipbuilding costs and a struggle to staff the technically demanding vessels has apparently stalled their plans.
Around a dozen vessels from China, Norway, South Korea, Ukraine, and Chile currently fish four permitted open areas off the Antarctic Peninsula. Environmentalists and sustainable fishing advocates previously expressed concern the entrance of Chinese interests into the fishery could push the annual krill catch above the 620,000-metric-ton maximum allowed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which sets the total allowable catch at two percent of the total stock of Antarctic krill. Those fears have been exacerbated by a 2016 study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, which found warmer waters and increased ice melt could drive krill numbers down about 30 percent by the end of the century.
Recently, CCAMLR has been criticized for its shortcomings in enforcing a fishing ban in marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Antarctic. The treaty’s requirement that decisions be made unanimously by its 25 member-nations has stalled efforts by some of its members to create more marine protected areas, primarily due to opposition from Russia. A recent CCAMLR meeting was marred by a dispute between representatives of Russia and New Zealand, with the latter accusing a Russian-flagged vessel of illegal fishing.
Dmitri Sclabos, managing director of Chilean firm Tharos, said the fishery is sufficiently regulated by CCAMLR to prevent any impact on wildlife.
“Krill operators adhere to CCAMLR’s fishing regulations, following very strict precautionary conditions in fishing tonnage and regions, hence preserving wildlife and bycatch,” he told SeafoodSource.
Sclabos described the Antarctic krill fishery as “the best world fishery regulation available.”
“[There is a] complete absence of IUU fishing activities, [with] norms and regulations taken yearly by consensus based on the best science,” he said.
Photo courtesy of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources
