Peter Stevens, Austral’s general manager in charge of its Southern Deep Sea Fisheries arm, said that Isla Eden has been ice-rated before leaving the yard in Norway for its 40-day delivery trip to Mauritius and Kjell Inge Sjåstad at the Båtbygg yard told Fishing News International that the Isla Eden’s refit has been a sizeable job for the yard, with benefits for the surrounding region as a number of sub-contractors from the area around Måløy have been involved in the refit.
Jakob Hals at Fiskevegn commented that they have had a good relationship with Austral Fisheries since the delivery of a full system in 2007 for the longliner Austral Leader II.
“This is one of the largest single orders for a while,” Jakob Hals said, adding that Fiskevegn are also supplying a year’s supply of fishing gear as part of the package for when Isla Eden begins fishing in early May.
Isla Eden sailed from Norway with a year’s worth of fishing gear on board, as well as the BFG deck hardware and some additional supplies to be delivered to Austral Fisheries’ other liner, Austral Leader II.
“These are our weighted IW-X deep sea longlines and a million snooded hooks. It has been a pleasure for Fiskevegn to be able to follow this project jointly with Austral Fisheries, from an early stage to its recent successful launching of the longliner, ready to start fishing,” said Fiskevegn managing director Trond Inge Kvernevik.
“All vessel investments are big decisions, and hitting the ground running with an effective operation is essential.
“Besides being a total supplier of mechanical longlining equipment, and offering a full range of swivel-line fishing gear and accessories, we do have several decades’ track record in this industry. We strive to build on that to contribute know-how as well as equipment to our customers,” he commented.
As well as the year’s supply of heavy-duty 12mm IW-X weighted lines, Isla Eden also sailed with supplies of Fiskevegn’s four-strand impregnated Silver end ropes and the hooks are EC 15/0 type. All other fishing gear was supplied by Fiskevegn.
According to Fiskevegn’s sales manager, Jakob Hals, the co-operation with Austral Fisheries goes back to 2007 with Fiskevegn’s involvement in the rebuilding of the company’s first longliner, Austral Leader II, which had originally been a Danish purse seiner.
“We assisted Austral Fisheries in acquiring Isla Eden. The nearly boat was originally built in Norway for American Seafoods, and later fished from Argentina under the name Antarctic 2,” he explained.
“It was then sold to new owners in Chile and renamed Isla Eden. When it was again up for sale, we brought the prospect to the attention of Austral Fisheries, resulting in the boat getting a new owner last December.”
Egil Moe, head of sales of BFG automatic longline systems at Fiskevegn, told Fishing News International that Fiskevegn has always had a very good partnership with Austral Fisheries and that they look forward to continue providing services and equipments to the company’s two longliners in the future.
“The several thousand lines and million hooks that are delivered from Flatraket are enough for a year’s supply. In addition, Fiskevegn’s 100% owned subsidiary, Best Fishing Gear (BFG), has upgraded the automatic longline system on Isla Eden.
“We assisted in layout and solutions and delivered a complete BFG Automatic Longline system for Austral Leader II, and based on the positive experiences there, the system on board Isla Eden has been upgraded to a modern BFG system,” Egil Moe said, adding that BFG will also provide new hook magazines to Isla Eden after the vessel’s first trips outside Mauritius are completed.
“They will start fishing with the magazines they have, and then replace them with the new ones after a few months,” Jakob Hals said, commenting that as well as the equipment on board Isla Eden, more gear is being shipped in containers to Mauritius.
-Taken from IntraFish, Fishing News International, May 2013