Factory trawler Joseph Roty II is making its way to a scrapping yard in Belgium, leaving its home port of Saint Malo for the last time.
Built in 1974 as one of a trio of 90-metre, 15-metre breadth trawlers designed to operate on Newfoundland fishing grounds when the cod fishery was booming, Joseph Roty II is the last to be broken up. Capitaine Pleven II and Victor Pleven were both scrapped some years ago.
As the Newfoundland fishery drew to a close for the French fleet in 1992, Joseph Roty II was converted and became a unique vessel, outfitted to fish for blue whiting and to produce surimi on board, making it the only fishing vessel in Europe capable of surimi production at sea. It has been refitted a number of times over the years to keep it active, but was finally taken out of service two years ago.
The role of fishing blue whiting to produce surimi went to an even larger fishing vessel, Annelies Ilena, which is too big to enter the port of Saint Malo. There was a great deal of controversy from enviromental populist groups at the time of the switch to a more modern vessel, although the transfer of fishing rights to Annelies Ilena was finally allowed to take place.
After more than fifty years of activity and two years for Saint Malo fishing company Comapêche, subsequently Compagnie des Pêches Saint-Malo, Joseph Roty II is heading up the Channel to Ghent to be dismantled.
