Brittany company Armement à la pêche artisanale de Keroman (APAK), based in Lorient is putting substantial investment into fishing, with new vessels and plans for a new processing plant in the port area.
At the end of last year APAK acquired a 23.40 metre trawler from Boulogne and then put €1.3 million in to a refit to convert it to a multi-purpose fishing vessel. Gloire à Marie III was built at Piriou in 2000 for Boulogne owner Ludovic Loth, who has now retired from fishing.
Now renamed Naoned, the boat was steamed to Stellendam in Holland of an extensive refit to convert it from a dedicated trawler to being capable of switching between seine netting and trawling with either pelagic or demersal gear at different times of the year.
Although Naoned has already begun fishing, a reception was held in its home port of Lorient last week.
‘The whole refit was done at Padmos, with new winches for seine netting,’ said owner Eric Guygniec at APAK.
‘We were looking for safety, comfort and fuel economy, as well as being able to boost the value of catches as seine net-caught fish is such good quality. The fish spends very little time in the net, so the quality is excellent.’
The expectation is that Naoned will operate with an overall fuel bill of 20% lower than would otherwise have been possible, and the boat has made a good start, fishing well on cuttlefish, squid, red mullet and some mackerel.
Check out the November issue of Hook & Net for the full report on Naoned, the two new trawler/seiners the company has ordered from Padmos, and the new factory being built in Lorient to process a proportion of the company’s catches.
