The Shipyard Hijos de J. Barreras earlier this month another “super seiner†the Albatun Dos, which is property of the Spanish tuna fishing company Albacora. This new tuna vessel has a length of 115 meters of length and also the capacity of freezing in 1 or 2 tanks at 65 degrees below cero. This ship is number 30 in the series of vessels with the same naval design characteristics which were developed by this Vigo wharf specialized in tuna purse seiners.
The vessel will count with 31 crewmembers. It is expected to head from the Eastern Pacific Ocean, where it will start to fish on skipjack and yellowfin tuna. It is not clear what its homeport will be.
Atuna published in October the following article on the Albatun Dos:
| Albacora Builds Two New 3500 M/T Superseiners | Spain, October 1, 03 |
Spain’s next tuna superseiner is to supply the low-temperature market in Japan with fish frozen aboard at –55 degrees C. in addition to producing normal well-frozen fish for canneries. Owner Albacora is fitting a low-temperature freezing tunnel on the starboard side for the highest quality purse seine caught tuna on it’s new 115-meter long superseiner. These carefully selected tuna will be deep-frozen and stored forward in two 25-ton low-temperature freezing holds. â€This is something new for Spanish tuna seiners and it is high added value†says naval architect Erneto Seidel, commercial manager at Shipyard Barreras (Hijos De J. Barreras), the Vigo yard, which is building two sister-ships for top Spanish owner Albacora. Shipyard Barreras is next month due to launch the hull of the first 115-meter tuna superseiner, which is due for delivery in February 2004. The second ship is expected to follow in June 2004. Albacora is a major shareholder in the Barreras shipyard and the company ordered the two superseiners to take advantage of some of the last shipbuilding subsidies made available by the EU in Brussels for larger fishing vessel construction projects, These funds were cut off at the end of last year and owners now have to pay full construction costs. â€Albacora is a very big company, which has a good position in the market and takes a long-term view. Many other ship owners have a more traditional approach to the business,†says Ernesto Seidel. â€Albacora saw the opportunity to use the last subsidies to maintain its fleet.†The shipyard counts other leading Spanish tuna ship operators, such as Atunsa and Calvo, among its customers and it has built the largest tuna ships in the world, as well as repairing and refitting tuna seiners. There has even been interest from shipyards in the Far East to share the yard’s tuna ship building technology which has been developed by building 21 tuna seiners since 1980. | |
