Bangladesh fishing company Sea Resources Limited and Danish fishing gear manufacturer Cosmos Trawl have renewed a contract with Danish overseas aid agency Danida to put into place the third phase of a fishing gear technology development project in Bangladesh.
This follows a one-year trial period that also resulted in the establishment of a new fishing gear supply company under the SRL-Cosmos Trawl Ltd name.
The new company is located in Ichnanagar/Sardaghat in the port of Chittagong, which is the main centre of fishing activity in Bangladesh.
The chairman is A Rouf Chowdhury of Sea Resources and the managing director is Lars Jensen of Cosmos Trawl. Master netmaker Eiríkur H Sigurgeirsson has been appointed as a technical director, and he will be managing the day-to-day running for the company.
Construction of a new 1,500m2 fishing gear store is set to start shortly, but for the moment, the new company has facilities available to it inside a shipyard at the same location. All of the company’s staff will receive training in fishing gear technology, based on the curriculum used by the Sudurnes Comprehensive College in Iceland.
SRL-Cosmos Trawl’s area of operation will cover most fishing gear types, with the emphasis on efficient modern demersal and pelagic trawl gear, as well as purse seine technology.
The company aims to hold a comprehensive inventory of stock so that fleet managers and skippers can obtain whatever they need for modern fishing operations, and it also aims to provide technical advice in the development and use of the latest trawl gears.
Once the new fishing gear store has been completed and is in full service to the Bangladeshi fleet, the company says it expects to look to other Asian fishing countries where there is a similar market.
