Western Fishers Shipyard Ltd in Chittagong has launched the first Deep Sea Mid Water fishing trawler ever built in Bangladesh on the 30th Sep 2012. Western Fishers is the first shipyard in the country to have initiated new building of Mid Water Fishing Trawlers in Bangladesh. The design was from Iceland. The trawler will be able to cope with the rough Bay of Bengal and further deeper from the presence.
This is the first time that modern fishing trawlers are being constructed in Bangladesh. Previously such trawlers used to be imported mainly from China and Thailand.
The ship launched is called FT Agro Food-1, is a 42m long ship with freezing capacity 300 tons of fish. The ship has a draft of 4.3m, with an engine power of 1850 BHP, generator power of 800 KW & pulling capacity 26 ton.
The managing director of the shipyard Mr. Sakhawat Hossain said that unlike other imported fishing trawlers in the country this ship has been custom made to operate in the rough weather of Bay of Bengal. FT Agro Food -1 is equipped with Anti roll-tank, Kaplan propeller, Kort nozzle, bulbous bow, powerful engine & bollard pull, which makes the vessel fit for fishing in the Bay of Bengal yet in monsoon period.
The chairman of the shipyard A. Rouf Chowdhury said that the trawler is having hi-tech refrigeration system like processing deck, slurry ice machine, chill water maker, blast freezer and store freezer which will maintain the fish fresh and best quality. Bangladesh will be able to export even better quality sea fish. By having order for building of such new trawler in WFSL will generate employment.
[mappress] Press Release, October 8, 2012