The Nor-Fishing Foundation Innovation Award 2022

We are less than 2 months away from this year’s Nor-Fishing trade fair. The Nor-Fishing Foundation Board is excited to once again hand out the Innovation Award, consisting of NOK 100.000, to a worthy winner.

The jury have nominated three candidates for this year’s Innovation Award, for their development projects for the fishing industry. The jury consists of Jan Henrik Sandberg, senior adviser in the Norwegian Fishermen’s Association; Oddvar Staulen, financial advisor at Innovation Norway; and Kjell Maroni, Head of Aquaculture at FHF.

The 2022 Nor-Fishing Foundation Innovation Award nominees are:

• Rederiet Bluewild AS, Ålesund og Ulstein Design & Solutions AS, Ulsteinvik
• Marin Teknikk AS, Gursøy og Ervik Havfiske AS, Stadtlandet
• Ocean Space Acoustics AS (OASC), Trondheim

The ship owner Bluewild AS and Ulstein Design & Solutions AS

Alongside several partners in the maritime cluster, the nominees have developed a total concept for a factory trawler. A significant portion of the project’s innovation lies in the newly developed catch reception and handling of the trawl.

While still alive and remaining below the water line, the fish is transferred to water tanks aboard the ship, where they are bled and transferred in stages to the ship’s factory facility. The finished fish products are frozen to -35 degrees, in advanced cold-storage facilities.

The vessel has a hybrid diesel-electric and diesel-mechanical propulsion system, with two propellers and rudder nozzles. Compared to conventional power systems, and based on the ship’s operational profile, the propulsion system and system integration will be able to achieve fuel savings of more than 25 % per kg finished fish product produced. During some operations, assisted by other energy-saving measures, the fuel savings can reach 40 % whilst also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Marin Teknikk AS and Ervik Havfiske AS

The nominees have developed a new and innovative combined fishing and catching vessel for trawl and crab fishing with a central hauling pool/ moonpool. The vessel’s design will provide gentler catching of fish and crab, whilst improving the safety of the crew.

The new vessel contributes to a more sustainable way of fishing, improved reproduction for the crab, and a reduced load on the crab stock – because the female crab is less affected by the fishing. The design and inventive solutions will also increase the efficiency of the fishery, in part because the vessel become less vulnerable to ice, sea, and weather conditions.

The vessel will be tailored with fitted and newly developed equipment, like an optimized conventional/diesel electric propulsion system and the latest equipment for heat recovery – in addition to a new winch and “haul” solution for crab fishing. The vessel will also have its own research laboratory, for research on snow crab and other marine species.

Ocean Space Acoustics AS (OASC)

The nominee has developed PingMe, a technical solution which will prevent the loss of fishing gear placed in the sea, as well as make fishing more efficient. PingMe can detect, identify and locate equipment and place it in chart plotters.

The solution consists of a data platform, a transmitter/receiver service (on board) and a transponder with a unique ID. The transponder’s position is estimated and displayed on chart plotters, alongside the transponder’s ID and depth. The equipment will prevent ghost fishing, give the fisherman information about where the equipment is whilst fishing, and improve economic performance by facilitating quick recovery lost gear.

The equipment also provides depth and temperature information at the equipment’s location. An app manages all detections of PingMe transponders, ensuring that your own fishing data can be retrieved after your trip, and that lost gear can be detected by other vessels with the PingMe system – if the owner does not find it himself. The app also provides an overview of the ship company’s other boats, their current positions and their gear marked with PingMe-transmitters.