Commercial trawling is not just about netting types and door control anymore.
At its core, 21st Century commercial trawling is a highly technical enterprise where ship design, complex rigging and deck hardware, and increasingly high-tech software are routine factors. New spaceship-looking trawlers bearing Star Trek-level sensing capabilities are reality. Video monitoring systems and even 3D sonar imaging are demystifying the deep.
Herein are a few notable trawler technology developments to put on your radars.
Kongsberg Maritime Flexes with Arctic Fjord
For Kongsberg Maritime, trawler technology means the whole package. The Norway-based company has designed dozens of vessels for American owners over the years, but the 324-foot trawler Arctic Fjord that launched last year is the first to be built within the US. The design, which is also the largest fishing vessel ever from the company, borrows elements from ocean research and seismic energy sectors that contribute to the unique look. Kongsberg Maritime Ship Design handled the hull shape, plus the deck and machinery, below-deck factory, and layout.
“This has been a significant contract for Kongsberg Maritime, and to deliver our first design to be built in the USA is a major milestone,” said Atle Gaasø, Kongsberg sales director for ship design, Americas. Arctic Fjord was commissioned by Seattle-based Arctic Storm Management Group (ASMG) and built by Thoma-Sea shipyard in Louisiana. ASMG manages a fleet of four fishing vessels and the new ship replaces ASMG’s original 1974-built vessel of the same name.
“It is our ambition to raise the bar with our new builds, providing vessels that deliver optimal results for our stakeholders, while minimizing their impacts on the environments where they operate,” said Brett Johnson, Vice President of ASMG.
Arctic Fjord has a highly efficient hull design and wave-piercing bow, which is supposed to reduce fuel consumption and slamming in rough seas. The crew capacity is 152 souls in 48 cabins. The company claims Arctic Fjord can haul catches of up to 200 tons on deck. Arctic Fjord has a high bollard pull of 110 tons thanks to a single Bergen 7,200 kW main engine. An innovative Kongsberg Maritime Promas Innoduct rudder and nozzle system with a propeller of 13.77’ in diameter provides steering and propulsion.
The Kongsberg mark continues beyond the ship design and into the systems. “We chose Kongsberg (Maritime) to integrate the vessel in large chunks, as one source for machinery, engineering technology, and electronics, for a lot of reasons,” said Johnson. “We’ve been customers of what is Kongsberg Maritime now for our entire business life… it is a relationship that works well for us and for them.”
Arctic Fjord contains a “comprehensive package, with almost everything that we can deliver from Kongsberg Maritime,” said Ottar Ristesund, vice president sales offshore support & construction of Kongsberg. These systems include Kongsberg Discovery’s SN90 multibeam sonar, which can detect fish in schools or individually, and an ES80 sounder system capable of detailed fish inspections. A FX80 live camera and DFS75 gear monitoring systems combination displays how nets are deployed and verify the catch in real-time.
In essence, Arctic Fjord is Kongsberg’s ultimate trawler technology flex. The industry took note in November 2023 by awarding the company with a Maritime Achievement Award at the International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans. At the time of this writing, Arctic Fjord has been successfully doing what she was born to do—fish pollock and hake in the Pacific.
Naust Marine’s Automatic Systems
Iceland-based Naust Marine has been delivering electric winch, control, and power management systems since 1993. The company maintains a Poulsbo, Washington, location to service the region.
Preeminent among their product line is their Automatic Trawl Winch (ATW) control system. The ATW software is designed and assembled by Naust Marine to provide automatic load control for trawl winches. An operator sets the net to a desired length and the ATW works to ensure equal tension on the wires. The company claims the system functions in a variety of scenarios: moving forward, crosscurrents, and turning. If all goes as it should, the ideal geometry of the trawl should be maintained for maximized fish yields.
As far as business news for Naust Marine, the company has expanded with a new facility in Spain. Notable vessel projects abroad include being selected by Parlevliet & Van der Plas to provide a custom solution to a new pelagic vessel. The job includes over twenty winches teamed with the ATW system. Additionally, Norwegian fly-shooting vessel, Eilifson, will be outfitted with Naust Marine’s trawl and fly-shooting winches. Argos Berbés, a new Falkland trawler, will be equipped with a complete electric deck machinery package from Naust Marine for the Orion Fishing Company.
Furuno USA
Marine electronics juggernaut Furuno USA is based in Camas, Washington. “We pride ourselves on being a very broadly integrated company. We have almost unquestionably the largest product line in marine electronics,” said National Sales Manager Matt Wood when interviewed last year. “I’m fond of saying that from one phone call to the next I might go from a $600 fish finder to a $600,000 integrate bridge system. And I don’t really think that’s there’s a single other manufacturer that can do that.”
New products for the year include the NX-900 NAVTEX Receiver that automatically receives, displays, prints, and send data to navigation equipment aboard. Data ranges from ECDIS, maritime safety information (MIS), meteorological warnings, search and rescue (SAR) information, and broadcasts from coastal stations in the MF and HF bands. The new model boasts of its refined user interface that’s to improve visibility and operability. Note, a printer is not integrated into the machine.
On the fish finder front, the FCV-800 and FCV-600 color LCD models are new. The two products integrate the company’s TruEcho CHIRP™ with other in-house technologies for fishing finding purposes. The broadband, multi-frequency features can utilize multiple transducers for optimized imagery. The FCV-800 features an 8.4″ color LCD screen, the FCV-600 a 5.7″ version.
iXblue – Sonar in 3D?
European technology company iXblue has been trying to push the envelope with 3D biomass assessment and bathymetry sensing.
The company’s SeapiX-F system enables “across” (port and starboard) and “along” (fore and aft) sonar swathes and echograms in all directions. Along each direction, 256 beams take readings and the data can be presented as a 3D image of what’s below the surface. Bottom hardness is also measured with 256 beams. The data can also be displayed in a more traditional 2D image.
What’s more, the company claims a level of resolution to where a reasonable assessment of fish species can be determined. Not only would such capabilities be useful to a fishing operation to catch fish, but such detail could help operators target species and avoid bycatch. The SeapiX-F works for both bottom and pelagic trawling applications. Note, the range of the unit is 400 meters depth.
Net Cams and Lights with SafetyNet Technologies
SafetyNet Technologies is a UK-based company that makes innovative products for the trawling sector. The company’s ethos focuses on precision fishing with standalone, mountable LED lights, underwater cameras, and sensors. In a field where fully integrated systems seem all the rage, perhaps there’s something to be said for inexpensive, self-contained units that lend themselves to the custom setups of individual operators.
One of their creations is the CatchCam, an underwater video camera designed to be attached to running gear like a trawl net for monitoring purposes. The self-contained units are rated up to 800 meters depth and can record up to 100 hours of footage on a single charge. The CatchCam is also completely wireless when transferring video files. It’s worth noting that the video is not livestreamed from the deep, so one must haul the net and review the footage aboard. Models range from an Entry Package to Deep Gold Package, $6,495 to $14,495.
They also make the Pisces, a selective fishing light meant to attract selected species to reduce bycatch. The small self-contained light contains six LED lights with different colors and preset settings. Pisces can stay illuminated for up to 270 hours on a single charge and is rated up to 800 meters depth. While cool, fishermen are advised to check in with regional regulations before firing up the underwater disco light party. Oregon for example outlawed lights for squid seining use
last year.
SafetyNet Technologies has also announced that a new product, the SeaSensor, is set to be launched this year. The sensor will monitor parameters like temperature, turbidity, and the like to the benefit of fishermen. Sometimes it pays to know if you’re on top of that thermocline.
Norris Comer is a Seattle-based writer and author. His debut memoir, Salmon in the Seine: Alaskan Memories of Life, Death, & Everything In-Between is now available wherever books are sold. You can find him on Substack, Instagram and at norriscomer.com. He can be reached via email at norriscomer@substack.com.