Norwegian fishing company Bluewild’s new trawler Ecofive has been handed over by the Westcon yard and this innovative new vessel has steamed to Ålesund for the last stages of outfitting before it leaves for a trip to test the array of imaginative new systems on board.
Even while still under construction, Ecofive had won awards for the innovative thinking that has gone into the 73-metre Ulstein FX101 design of this new factory trawler, developed by the owners in collaboration with Ulstein Design & Solutions. Among these, the concept took the Innovation Award at Nor-Fishing in 2022 and was named Ship of the Year at Nor-Shipping in 2023.
Consequently, there has already been a great deal of attention focused on Ecofive – the name’s a contraction of Eco-Friendly Fishing Vessel – and the combination of systems brought together, some new and others adapted from other sectors.
Every aspect of conventional ideas of how to build a factory trawler have been addressed by Bluewild and the designers at Ulstein, in some instances throwing out accepted wisdom to go with new thinking and in others adapting technologies from other sectors.
The inverted bow contributes to better seakeeping and a more effective use of space on board, while below the waterline are a pair of large-diameter propellers mounted in steering nozzles. This is coupled to a hybrid energy system to provide a power and propulsion configuration that Ulstein’s designers predict will lead to fuel savings of at least 25% per kg of product compared to a conventional power system, rising to as much as 40% under some circumstances.
Gentle handling
Ecofive’s deck is laid out for handling quad-rig demersal gear towed on five warps, also with options for working pelagic gear. The new thinking is at the stern, and where there would usually be a hatch through which the catch would be dropped to the pounds on the deck level below, there’s a trawl fork which is raised as the belly of the trawl is in the ramp. This is designed to catch and secure a connector ring built into the trawl belly, and once secure, the cod-end can be released from the rest of the trawl.
The concept is for the retractable trawl fork to then be lowered below the surface to align with one of the openings to the reception tank. The cod-end is lifted to encourage the live catch to make its way into the tank in a system that draws on technology developed for well boats to keep fish alive and at their best throughout the process.
The premise is the catch is kept alive and in prime condition until routed to the processing deck. This promotes gentle handling, eliminating crush damage and stress that can lead to blood being captured in the muscle tissue and discolouring the finished product.
Bluewild is aiming for 100% utilisation of the catch with minimal quality loss, while maximising nutritional potential and slashing energy consumption.
Keeping the fish alive in circulating sea water on board has positive implications for processing. The catch doesn’t leave the water until the point at which production begins, with fish or shrimp kept alive in a system that uses controlled water exchange, oxygen supply and temperature control.
Product quality
Catches are transferred to the upper factory deck via an overpressure release, avoiding the damage that can occur when using negative pressure pumping, and the expectation is that the end product quality will be significantly higher as fish arrive live and kicking at the factory to be bled and subsequently passed through cooling channels to bring down their temperature, contributing to better bleeding and faster freezing.
The production deck is outfitted to take fish from the tanks to the factory section, in a process designed to extract the best possible value from whitefish, to produce fillets, loins, centre pieces, tails and bellies. Alongside this, Ecofive is getting a production line for cooked, single-frozen shrimp, with smaller grades to be block frozen as an industrial product.
All other material is to be processed to ensure it remains fit for human consumption, with off-cuts, backbones and tails kept separate and block-frozen, while offal goes for production of unoxidised oil in a low-temperature process.
Ecofive’s refrigeration plant is designed to operate on CO2 – both a safe option and allowing for significantly lower temperatures to be achieved – which supports greater energy efficiency.
At the end of the production process, there’s a 2,000-cubic-metre refrigerated fishroom, with some sophisticated warehousing logistics for sorting and zone storage to streamline offloading and the onward chain once frozen catches have left the vessel.
