| Hans J
Marter 23 December 2007
SHETLAND’S once buoyant whitefish industry is making a remarkable
recovery with new boats joining the fleet and adding to a growing mood
of confidence.
 Saturday
(22 December) saw the arrival of a brand new seine netter, Radiant
Star LK71, to Burra skipper Victor Laurenson and partners.
The 75 foot vessel was built at the Parkol shipyard, in Whitby,
Yorkshire and is not the first new build the yard has completed for
Shetland in the recent past.
In April last year, skipper Mark Anderson took delivery of the
Copious LK985, and the Parkol yard is already busy working on
another whitefish vessel for Mr Anderson, which is due to be delivered
in April 2008.
After years of doom and gloom, the sector - so vital for the economic
psyche of island life - is getting back on its feet. What was once a
proud fleet of 36 whitefish vessels had almost halved to just 19 over
recent years. Now it is recovering and boasts 22 boats. Fishing
partnerships are profitable once again despite high fuel costs and days
at sea limitations.
Victor Laurenson said the time had been right to replace his previous
Radiant Star with a new boat tailor-made to the crew’s requirements.
“She is a seine netter, but also fitted out for trawling. However, we
will concentrate on seine netting for cod, haddock and whiting. That
fishing is far more fuel efficient and the quality of the catch is so
much higher. I thing these two factors, quality and efficiency, are the
most important to the industry today,” he said.
The 41 year old skipper, who has also been the chairman of the Shetland
Fish Producers’ Organisation since 2002, hails from a local fishing
family. He started his own career as a 15 year old boy on board yet
another Radiant Star in 1981, then skippered by his father Bert.
That vessel, the first Radiant Star, had been bought by the family in
1964 when it replaced the Enterprise, which had been skippered by
Victor’s grandfather Bobby Laurenson.
Today, his father, although not active as a fisherman anymore, is still
part of the Radiant Star LLP, with the other partners being James Reid,
Marvin Inkster and Ian Couper.
Victor said the partners had decided to commission the Whitby yard after
they had seen the new Copious arrive in Shetland. “We were very pleased
with her finishing and started negotiations with the yard. They made us
a good offer and it was better than what we got from other yards.”
The 22.8 metre Radiant Star was the largest vessel Parkol has completed
to date. The 150 tonne vessel is steel hulled with a double chine hull,
transom stern, semi bulbous bow, soft nose stern and a full length
shelter deck.
Fitted with a Mitsubishi S6RS – MPTKF main engine, Radiant Star is
equipped with a new design of powered rope reels manufactured by Thistle
Marine, operated by a seine computer package from Scantrol.
Below deck she is subdivided by three watertight bulkheads into aft
accommodation with steering gear, engine room, fish room and forepack
tank/store.
 The shelter deck has a net drum, power block crane, gilsen frame, trawl
gallows, aluminium alloy wheelhouse and a landing crane.
The vessel has a breadth of 7.25 metres, a draught of 4.15 metres, and a
fuel capacity of 20,000 litres, ice locker capacity of 10 tonnes, and
can also carry 6,000 litres of fresh water.
Radiant Star was launched in Whitby in the middle of November
when a large contingent from Shetland travelled to Yorkshire to
celebrate the christening in style. Since then the boat has been fitted
out and has undergone engine trials. She arrived at her homeport of
Hamnavoe on Saturday morning to be ready to take up her job at the fishing grounds
as of early next year.
Mr Laurenson said that as far as he was concerned the future of fishing
was bright. There was now a healthy balance between supply of fish and
demand from the market which guaranteed better prices.
He said the increase in next year’s cod quota of 11 per cent
was much needed, but realistically the increase should have been even
higher as there was an abundance of cod in the sea
The PO chairman continued that the reduction in the haddock
quota was disappointing, adding that in a mixed fishery this would
result in the need for more haddock quota to be hired in, which had a
detrimental impact on the economics of individual boats.
But what really has turned around the fortunes of the sector was the
eradication of back door landings, Mr Laurenson said. “We were ruining
ourselves,” he reflected on an era that saw fishermen being caught in a
terrible Catch 22 situation, which saw them undermining their own
earning capacity by over supplying the market with non quota fish.
“I am very optimistic, you have to be, otherwise you don’t need to be in
the industry. I hope Shetland will continue to play a major role in the
fishing industry, particularly now with Lerwick Port Authority’s
commitment to build a new fish market.”
The new Radiant Star has been financed by the Clydesdale Bank, local
investment firm Shetland Development Trust, the Shetland Fishermen’s
Trust as well as “large personal commitments from the crew”
Mr Laurenson said he would like to thank all those who have worked
towards making it happen, particularly the partnership’s agents LHD.
This article has also appeared in
the latest issue of FISHupdate Magazine. |
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