Three candidates have been nominated for this year’s innovation award for their development projects for the fishing industry.

The fishing company Bluewild AS, Ålesund and Ulstein Design & Solutions AS, Ulsteinvik, have, together with several players in the maritime cluster, developed a concept for a factory trawler where the central part of the innovation in the project lies in a newly developed catch reception and handling of the trawl.

The catch will be taken alive directly from the sea and into separate tanks on board before being transferred alive below the waterline to water tanks on board before bleeding and transferral to the factory facility. The finished fish product will be frozen to 35 degrees Celsius below zero in advanced freezing areas. The hybrid power and propulsion system, which combines the best features of diesel-electric and diesel-mechanical propulsion is supported by a large battery pack and comes with two large propellers with rudder nozzles. Based on the operational profile of the ship, Ulstein has planned the propulsion system and system integration to enable fuel savings of at least 25 per cent per kilo of fish product produced compared to a conventional power system. In some operations, together with other energy-saving measures on board, this figure can exceed 40 per cent. This significant reduction in energy requirements will not only lead to reduced fuel costs for the fishing company but will also result in a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

The other two nominees are Marin Teknikk and Ervik Havfiske for developing a combined vessel for trawling and crab fishing, and Ocean Space Acoustics for the development of ‘PingMe’ which will prevent the loss of fishing gear and catch and make fishing more effectively.