Baffin Fisheries has taken delivery of new 80-metre trawler Inuksuk II, the largest fishing vessel under the Canadian flag, which is scheduled to soon start operating on shrimp and Greenland halibut (turbot) for its Inuit owners.
Inuksuk II has been built to a Skipsteknisk ST-119 design with an 80-metre overall length, a beam of 18 metres and a 2700 cubic metre fishroom capacity for 1320 tonnes of Greenland halibut or 930 tonnes of shrimp. Accommodation on board is for a crew of up to 34. The new trawler has been built at Tersan in Turkey.
Baffin Fisheries is owned by Inuit Hunters and Trappers Associations in five Qikiqtani region (Baffin Island) communities. The company is the leading commercial fishing enterprise in Northern Canada, harvesting more than 10,000 tonnes of Greenland halibut and cold-water shrimp annually. Baffin Fisheries’ wholly owned subsidiary Baffin Seafood ApS markets its products around the world.
Scotiabank led the incremental financing of up to $60M towards the $72M acquisition and included direct lending from Export Development Canada (EDC). The Canadian Economic Development Agency (CanNor) is providing a $3M repayable contribution towards the vessel.
‘This beautiful new vessel will allow us to increase benefits to Nunavut communities and improve employment opportunities and working conditions for our fishermen,’ said Baffin Fisheries chairman Sandy Kautuq.
