In a ceremony attended by a ministers and officials, the Russian Fishery Company has taken delivery of the fourth in a series of new factory trawlers built in Russia and designed to fish in the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk using pelagic trawl gear.
Kapitan Martynov is the fourth in the series of ST-192 factory trawlers built to fish for Alaska pollock and herring, and replacing the company’s fleet of well-maintained but elderly and less efficient Soviet-era tonnage.
The flag was raised on board at the Admiralty Shipyard in St Petersburg at an event graced by many speeches and the new vessel’s godmother Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko sending Kaptitan Martynov on its way.
The keel of this latest addition to the RFC fleet was laid in 2020 and the trawler was floated off for outfitting in September 2021. Sea trials were carried out in the Baltic Sea earlier this year. The fifth and sixth vessels in the series, Kapitan Yunak and Mekhanik Shcherbakov are currently under construction at the Admiralty Shipyard.
These Russian-built vessels were preceded by Vladimir Limanov, built at a Turkish shipyard to the same ST-192 design. The overall plan is for a series of eleven trawlers built to the same 108-metre LAO, 21-metre breadth design, intended to be able to process an annual catch of up to 60,000 tonnes.
‘It is a great honour for me to become the godmother of this vessel. We are proud of the success of the shipbuilders of the Admiralty Shipyards, who have completed such a large-scale project. This is rightfully one of the most modern and technologically advanced supertrawlers in the world,’ Viktoria Abramchenko said as the flag was raised on board Kapitan Martynov.
RFC general director Olga Naumova commented that the company now has four new vessels in operation and these are showing excellent production rates.
The factory deck on board Kapitan Martynov has capacity to produce fillets, mince, surimi, fish oil and fishmeal, as well as having a canning plant for roe and other products. The freezing capacity for fillets is around 80 tonnes per day and there is also an 80-tonne/day surimi plant. The meal plant is capable of producing approximately 40 tonnes per day.
The refrigerated fishroom space measures 5620 cubic metres. Accommodation is for a crew of up to 155.
