Big boost for fishing and onshore processing capacity of once troubled Murmansk co-op

Udarnik-2 fishing co-op based in Minkino near Murmansk boosted its fishing fleet with Norway-built Bell-Ocean-2 to become one of the best trawlers of the Russian North Fisheries Basin thanks to its high capacity, good performance and fuel economy. (Bell Ocean-2 is a serial vessel built in 1990 in Norway.)

The accommodations onboard are designed for 36 people. Conditions for their work and habitation meet current standards: the fish factory is computerized and there is a shower and a lavatory in every cabin.

The newly purchased trawler has become the twelfth ship in Udarnik's fishing fleet after the co-op's previous purchase of one transport vessel (for chilled fish) four months ago. The co-op has provided its new trawler with catch quotas.

Bell Ocean-2 will substitute 3 or 4 out-of-date SRT middle trawlers. The proceeds from their sales will be invested into construction of a land-based factory, which is scheduled for commissioning in August later this year.

On 21 March 2007 Bell Ocean-2 left for its first four-month-long trip under the Russian flag in the Barents and Norwegian Seas. Her catch target for the trip is 4000 tonnes of cod and haddock.

Bell Ocean-2 is a universal trawler and in the future she is also supposed to harvest herring, blue whiting and polar cod Boreogadus saida.