Norwegian fishing company Bluewild has taken delivery of the new Ecofive from Westcon Yards in Ølensvåg and is heading for Ålesund for the final phase of completion ahead of a shakedown trip before Easter to test all of the systems on board.
The 73-metre Ecofive had already won a few awards for new thinking while still under construction and the trawler represents the latest in innovation. The Ulstein FX101 design has been developed by Ulstein Design & Solutions and the Ecofive name is a contraction of Eco-Friendly Fishing Vessel – with a combination of systems brought together, some new and others adapted from other sectors.
Every aspect of conventional ideas of how to built a factory trawler have been addressed by Bluewild and the designers at Ulstein, in some instances throwing out accepted wisdom to go with new thinking and in others adapting technologies from other sectors.
The inverted bow is an immediately striking feature, and this contributes to better seakeeping and a more effective use of space on board, while below the waterline are a pair of large-diameter propellers mounted in steering nozzles. This is coupled to a hybrid energy system to provide a power and propulsion configuration that Ulstein’s designers predict will lead to fuel savings of at least 25% per kilo of product when compared to a conventional power system, rising to even exceed 40% under some circumstances.
The Ecofive deck is laid out for handling quad-rig demersal gear, also with options for working pelagic gear. The new thinking is at the stern, and where there would usually be a hatch through which the catch would be dropped to the pounds on the deck level below, there’s a trawl fork which is raised as the belly of the trawl is in the ramp. This is designed to catch and secure a connector ring built into the trawl belly, and once secure, the codend can be released from the rest of the trawl.
The concept is for the retractable trawl fork to then be lowered below the surface to align with one of the openings to the reception tank. The codend is lifted to encourage the live catch to make its way into the tank in a system that draws on technology developed for well boats to keep fish alive and at their best throughout the process.
The premise is that the catch is kept alive and in prime condition until routed to the processing deck. Bluewild’s aim is 100% utilisation of the catch with minimal quality loss, while maximising nutritional potential and slashing energy consumption.
Keeping the fish alive in circulating sea water on board has some positive implications for processing. The catch doesn’t leave the water until the point at which production begins, with fish or shrimp kept alive in a system that uses controlled water exchange, oxygen supply and temperature control.
Catches are transferred to the upper factory deck via an overpressure release, avoiding the damage that can occur when using negative pressure pumping, and the expectation is that the end product will be significantly higher as fish arrive live and kicking at the factory to be bled and subsequently passed through cooling channels to bring down their temperature, contributing to better bleeding and faster freezing.
For the production deck, the clock isn’t ticking in the way it would be with fish in a dry pound, with an immediate urgency to getting the catch through production and into the freezers. This means that production becomes a smoother process. This ability to keep fish alive for extended periods allows the factory deck to operate at a steady rate with smaller fluctuations, taking in raw material as capacity is available.
Ecofive’s refrigeration plant is designed to operate on CO2, – both a safe option and allowing for significantly lower temperatures to be achieved – which supports greater energy efficiency. At the end of the production process, there’s a 2000 cubic metre refrigerated fishroom, with some sophisticated warehousing logistics for sorting and zone storage to streamline offloading and the onward chain once frozen catches have left the vessel.
It’s a venture with some highly ambitious goals, which boil down to producing even higher quality seafood with lower running costs – primarily fuel– and consequently reduced emissions. Bluewild has thrown everything at this new vessel, and there are going to be a lot of people paying careful attention to how this highly innovative combination of technologies performs in practice.
