World Fishing Exhibition Vigo: one year on
A year on from the Vigo World Fishing Exhibition we asked some of the participants how business had fared since then and this is what they had to tell us.
Full trawl from Vigo
The head of Van Beelen, Dirk Van Beelen, was more than please with Vigo saying: "The show sure was a good one and probably the biggest also. We had a great response from many new and existing customers. We brought a whole line of new products aimed at reducing the cost of trawling and also reducing the cost of trawl building.
"In particular, our Dyneema rope and netting sales increased a lot. Our new compact Dyneema ropes with special protective cover are very popular as sweeps or bridles. They increase trawl openings and last extremely long. They remain perfectly round always and the strong cover protects the Dyneema rope inside.
"Our double knotted Dyneema netting improves the water flow through the meshes, reduces trawl drag and helps get the fish to the codend much faster. Our five and 6mm diameter Dyneema netting is used very successfully in Alaska Pollock fisheries and the codends give a service life of 5 to 6 years!
"With Dyneema netting in the back of the trawl, full catches can be made in a much shorter time. We also deliver tailor-made Enkalon netting for use 90-degree-turned in the codend section. Codends with 90-degree-turned netting fill much faster with caught and give a higher quality catch.
He said they were also pleased with "Our easy-to-splice, non-rotating Stealth rope, which reduces drag and increases trawl openings. This is reported by all customers using it to build the front sections of their mid-water trawls. Our Stealth ropes splices faster then any other rope, thus making their trawls more competitive. Stealth ropes can be delivered in full white colour, with colour fleck or in full bright colours. Customers tell us they are managing 60 to 70 Stealth splices per hour."
Vigo rang telecom tuna bell for Tacore
Companies naturally worry about the investment required for attending international fairs and the return they will get on the money they spend. One company more than pleased with the result of its efforts at the Vigo World Fishing Exhibition last year was Tacore saying: "After the show we obtained a double benefit: On the one hand we used all the feedback visitors provided us with in order to improve the systems we were launching and we could even take note of new fields of investigation on the basis of modelling needs for the future. On the other hand several companies offered their factories to run tests with this new equipment"
At Vigo, Tacore showed its system for control of tuna packing and a machine to sort pelagic species. What made their work different is that they had turned to the Telecommunications Department at the University of Vigo to help them develop these applications. Tacore says its work philosophy is based on the integration of tailor-made mechanics, electronics and computer applications to produce custom-built intelligent systems for customers in the fishing and canning industry.
The packing control system, which can recognise cans, check their circumference, the solidity of the tuna bar and its homogeneity in terms of colour, is now being tested in a canning factory in Spain. The speed of the system is proving to be more than enough since it can check up to 1,200 cans per minute and reject the faulty ones before they reach the seamers.
As for the grading machine Tacore says: "It will be soon installed in the plant of one of our customers. It will be sorting pelagic species such as sardine and jack mackerel and classifying one of the species in different sizes at a speed of ±600 fish/minute.
"Overall, we are well pleased with the results of the Exhibition. It was the best springboard we could have for our new products". They believe their commitment to Research & Development and tailor-made systems really pays off.
Down under
Apart from tempting everyone with pictures of large mussels the guys from New Zealand's HARMARG (featured in World Fishing after Vigo) had this to tell us: "Vigo 2003 with its emphasis on deepsea fishing and aquaculture was selected by Marine and General Engineering for the launch of its HARMAG range of shellfish - especially mussel - harvesting/handling equipment. It gave us the opportunity to take the New Zealand-developed technology back to the home of mussel farming. [See photo of the mussel rafts which have made Vigo one of the world's great mussel-farming capitals].
"New Zealand's production is not huge but the rates of harvesting, seeding and grading per crewman are very high with a strong focus on cleanliness of product with very low breakages.
"There was a great deal of interest shown in our products and the New Zealand growing system from both the local Spaniards and other visitors from Europe, UK, South America, Scandinavia etc and judging from the variety of enquires received since from around the world we made some impression and HARMAG equipment and ideas are being sought by a wide variety of people world wide for an equally wide range of uses."
Since the show the HARMAG fully adjustable grader with 15T/hour capacity has gone into production and found good acceptance in both the mussel and cockle industries.
