Two new Icelandic-designed fishing trawlers could be the greenest of their kind in the world, the company behind them claims.
“Our calculations show that the five-meter propeller is around 30-40 percent more economical than the three-meter propeller,” says Skipasýn project manager Rakel Sævarsdóttir in an industry press interview.
Skipasýn designed the propulsion systems for two trawlers which were launched in China last week: Páll Pálsson ÍS and Breki VE. Both Icelandic-designed and Chinese-built ships are made for use around Iceland. The former will be based in Ísafjörður in the West Fjords and the latter in the Vestmannaeyjar.
Rakel says it is not controversial to assert that the new ships are the environmentally-friendliest fresh fish trawlers in the world. BB.is reports that one of the biggest reasons for this is that the new design, which is built on older ideas, incorporates a new, bigger design of propeller which will provide greater fuel efficiency than on a normal ship.
Rakel believes the two ships are just part of a much bigger picture: the very welcome shift in demand towards more environmentally-conscious options in the fishing industry.
The new, much bigger propellers limit how shallow the water can be for the ships, and may prevent them from docking in some smaller harbors.
