MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

New trawler-freezer to join Falkland’s squid fisheries in 2024

Shipbuilders Nodosa from Marin in Galicia, Spain has formalized the construction of a new freezer trawler, for Orion Fishing Company Ltd., an association of Pereira SA from Vigo with the Falkland Islands Argos Group Ltd. The new trawler is scheduled to be delivered in 2024.

 Nodosa yards have a long working experience with Falklands fisheries operators, back in 2018 it supplied Orion Cies, which then was awarded the Prize for the most outstanding naval construction from Spain's Naval and Ocean Engineers College. The whole project and design was entirely worked out by Nodosa with the help from a Pereira team.

The new trawler will be 85 meters long, 14 meters beam and close to 2,500 gross tonnage, and the largest ever ordered by Pereira, and will be destined to the catch and processing of squid in the Falkland Islands fisheries. The ship yard points out that in the design of the new vessel priority has been given to the safety and living conditions of the crew, preservation of the environment and power efficiency.

Likewise other elements have been incorporated to mitigate incidental mortality of sea birds and other marine species. The freezing facilities will be working with ammonia, eliminating fluorinated gases, and thus reducing the environmental impact and depletion of the ozone layer.

The hull with an innovating design, an inverted bow, will optimize navigation in adverse climate conditions and significantly reduce fuel consumption. The processing plant will be equipped to elaborate quality produce in different formats and weight presentations.

Nodosa has a long working relation with the Falklands fisheries, having built among others, Monteferro, Argos Cies, Montelourido, Monteferro, Falcon, the longliner CFL Hunter, and is also constructing for Petrel Fishing Company Prion.