Danish trawl specialist and Hampidjan Group partner, Cosmos Trawl A/S, has supplied the trawl gear for Portugal’s new 73.8-metre freezer/stern trawler the França Morte.
The shrimp gear comprises three 2,500-mesh “Cosmos 2005” WB shrimp trawls, made in braided Magnet Green trawl netting, with a Dynex headline and 60mm float rope on the upper seams. The trawls were supplied complete, with rectangular sorting grid sections, new nylon sorting grids and drop-shaped bars, intermediate sections and single leg cod-ends for the North Atlantic Fisheries' Organization (NAFO) waters.
For groundfish, França Morte has three new 472-mesh “Cosmos 3000” WB combi-trawls. This is a new four-panel trawl design incorporating T90 sections in both trawl and intermediate sections. Similar to the shrimp trawls, these trawls are made in Magnet Green netting with a Dynex headline and Hampidjan float rope.
Cosmos also supplied the rock hopper/bobbin gear and bridles for all trawls and some other accessories. Iceland's Hampidjan provided two sets of 12m? Poly-Ice Viking-B trawl doors.
Cosmos deputy director Lars Jensen said: “A second-to-none history in supplying high quality shrimp trawls for many of the most successful trawlers fishing in the Barents Sea and the North Atlantic, combined with the very satisfactory results with our new groundfish trawl model, was the reason why Sociedade de Pesca Miradouro S.A. (owner's of França Morte) came to Cosmos for new shrimp and groundfish trawls".
He said they had been in constant contact with the customer over the last three years so that Miradouro was up-to-date with all the latest developments and so were sure they were getting the best possible trawl gear for their new twin trawler.
França Morte has been catching Greenland halibut and results have been very promising.
Cosmos said they hope to win business from Spanish trawlers operating in
NAFO waters and get orders from shrimping vessels which also want to target groundfish.
