MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Norwegian company converting 132-meter trawler to catch krill

A drawing of the krill trawler <i>Thorshovdi</i>

Krill Seaproducts from Ãâ€Â¦lesund, Norway is converting the 132-metre Vlieborg container vessel to a trawler in order to target krill. The steel work is done at Western Shipyard in Lithuania and refurbishing will be completed at the shipyard Fiskerstrand Verft in Ãâ€Â¦lesund. The name of the vessel has been changed to Thorshøvdi.

Once the vessel becomes operational it will have a daily production of 300 tons of ready made products, extracting for this purpose a daily catch of over 1.000 tons of krill per day. The Commission for the Conservation of the Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) regulates the krill fishery, with a total quota, but no individual quota is issued to individual participating vessels. When the fishery starts, the vessel will have to catch as much as possible until the total quota has been caught. Managing director Even Remøy from Krill Seaproducts expects the vessel to catch around 100,000 tons of krill annually. The vessel, originally an eight-year-old Dutch container vessel, will take on board 800 tons of new steel for the reforms which will also include a modern factory delivered by the Norwegian company Landteknikk AS and Alfa Laval Copenhagen AS in Denmark. According to Remøy the vessel should be ready for operation April next year. There are five investors behind Krill Seaproducts. Tore Remøy holds 28.57%; Even T. Remøy 28.57%; Spencer Energy AS, 23.81%; Gunnar Allan Jensen 14.29% and Remøy Management AS 4.76%. Owners' background is mainly in fishery, vessel management and investments in the oil sector. Spencer Energy is controlled by one of Norway's well-known investors in the oil and gas sector, and has a capital of more than EUR 200 million. (FIS/MP).