There’s a lot of shared history between Reykjavík fishing and processing company Fiskkaup and technology company Skaginn 3X – now part of Baader. Skaginn 3X supplied the processing equipment for Fiskkaup’s factory, and also for its previous longliner, and now the company’s recently acquired longliner is getting the Skaginn 3X treatment.
The new catch handling system to be installed on board former Southern Ocean toothfish longliner Kristrún RE-177 is designed to maintain Fiskkaup’s high standards. The company has MSC certification, is part of the Icelandic Responsible Fisheries consortium, and is one of only a few companies in Iceland specialising in catching and handling Greenland halibut.
Processing and freezing the fish at sea maintains top quality, and Fiskkaup is able to provide a steady supply of quality product to markets in Asia. Heads and tails are also processed and frozen on board, as these also fetch a respectable price on the same market. Skaginn 3X’s new onboard facility is designed to maximise both quality and the total available catch value.
‘Our facilities are all first-class, and the newest technology is used to ensure constant quality all year-round,’ explained Fiskkaup CEO Ásbjörn Jónsson.
‘Skaginn 3X outfitted our previous vessel with an onboard system in 2012 that operated seamlessly ever since. The reliability and efficiency of our existing solutions from Skaginn 3X was one of the reasons we decided to contact them again to install a new processing system for Kristrún RE-177. We are supplying high-quality Greenland Halibut to the Asian market and every part of the fish counts, as demand from the market has been strong. The new system is designed to utilise the entire fish and deliver quality product.’
The system is ergonomic and compact, utilising space and available manpower to the maximum extent.
‘This project was a pleasure to work on as both the management of Fiskkaup and the ship’s skippers Helgi Aage Torfason and Pétur Karlsson and the crew were involved from the start,’ said Böðvar Már Styrmisson, sales engineer for the project at Skaginn 3X.
‘This ensured that we designed an ergonomic, efficient system based on interdisciplinary cooperation where engineering, processing, manufacturing and firsthand production experience came together to create the best system for this vessel. The guys on board know what works and what they need and we are dedicated to deliver durable, robust systems that withstand the harsh conditions of processing at sea.’
The new installation is expected to increase throughput and yield, with the same manpower as on the previous Kristrún.
‘We are set to deliver increased throughput and better yield with the same manpower as Fiskkaup’s previous ship had,’ explained Ingvar Vilhjálmsson, Skaginn 3X’s Regional Sales Manager for Europe.
‘Our flexibility enables us to meet diverse needs from our clients. In this case we are integrating existing pieces of heading and freezing equipment into our overall design with Skaginn3X’s buffering, grading, bleeding, cutting and packing applications.’
