Icelandic fishing company HB Grandi has leased its fresher trawler Helga María to the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources for a three month deployment with a crew of eleven under skipper Heimir Guðbjörnsson.
HB Grandi took Helga María out of regular operation at the end of last year, since when it has been at the quayside in Reykjavík. A new research vessel for the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources is being built in Spain and will not be operational until the spring of 2021.
The contract for the lease of Helga María was signed by Helle Siegstad, head of the Institute’s department of fish and shellfish, and HB Grandi’s Torfi Th Thorsteinsson, in charge of the company’s corporate social responsibility.
The 56.86 metre Helga María AK-16 was built in Norway in 1988 as a freezer trawler, and was converted to a fresher trawler during an extensive refit some years ago. It will operate for the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources as a research platform with up to ten scientists on board as it contributes to bridging the gap until Institute’s new research vessel is ready.
Helga María is expected to sail from Reykjavík for Nuuk on 10th June.
