The whitefish trawler Opportune IV LK 209 arrived in Shetland recently – but not for long.
Undeterred by sinking this time last year, skipper Ross Christie (pictured above with his proud family) and crew have rigged up their new boat for pair trawling – a more efficient but riskier set-up in rough weather.
The arrangement will also see the Burra boat landing more of her fish on the mainland of Scotland with Fraserburgh- registered partner boat Helenus.
“It’s not been a big celebration, it’s just getting the families together,” said engineer and assistant Sam Young.
The crew have decided to pair trawl in the hopes of landing more fish, he added, and could not find a willing partner vessel in the isles, so had to look south. “It’s easier on the boat, easier on the kit, easier on the hydraulics,” he said.
Grant Irvine, another engineer and assistant skipper, said the crew intend to land in Shetland ‘as much as possible’, but will probably split their catches ‘half and half ’ between their home port and Helenus’ in Peterhead.
Scalloway’s fishmarket saw a downturn in sales last year that was partly put down to the loss of the previous Opportune last March.
“It is really sad,” said Norma Williamson, sales and marketing officer for Shetland Seafood Auctions, of the new arrangements. “She was at one point our biggest earner; she’d catch a lot of fish.”
Local agent LHD was more upbeat, suggesting that Scalloway will see a bump in landings when the pair team starts work. “In theory they’ll be landing twice as much fish,” said agent Andrew Aitken. “So it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”
The Opportune didn’t hang around long in Scalloway, leaving in order to be fitted with a pair link – a computer system allowing the skipper on one boat in the pair team to oversee and partly take control of the other in an emergency.
This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.50 here.
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