Murmansk, Russia-based Norebo Group has placed an order for four new longliners to be built at the St. Petersburg, Russia-based Severnaya Weft shipyard.
In late June, Norebo and Severnaya Weft, part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, signed a contract worth RUB 11.6 billion (USD 163.8 million, EUR 145 million) for the four vessels, which are due to be delivered between 2022 and 2025.
The longliners, designed by Nautic Rus, are being built to operate in areas of the Far Eastern fishery basin closed to trawlers, fishing cod, halibut, and grenadier. The ships will be equipped with on-board processing factories allowing for deep processing of their catch. The daily processing capacity of each of the 63-meter long and 14-meter wide ships is 50 metric tons (MT) of fillet or frozen fish.
Norebo Technical Director Pavel Kosolapov said the company is interested in energy-efficient, highly productive, and cost-saving ships. The company operates
eight longliners built in Germany that Kosolapov said have “proved efficient in areas where trawlers cannot be used” by reducing bycatch of non-target species. Moreover, longliners have some advantages over trawlers, as they allow for catching bigger halibut and cod, though Kosolapov said longline fishing is not an alternative to trawl fishing, but is just a supplement in areas where trawling isn’t feasible.
With the new contract, Severnaya Werf is now building a total of 14 vessels for Norebo for a total contract value of RUB 50 billion (USD 705.9 million, EUR 624.5 million). The first contract was signed in 2017 for six 81-meters long trawler-processors capable of converting 150 MT of fish into canned products and fish meal a day. Another four trawlers of the same type were contracted in early 2019. The trawlers will fish for pollock and herring.
Photo courtesy of Norebo
