The Arctic Fishery Alliance (AFA) has purchased a 52-meter longliner from Iceland, which will be joining the AFA’s fleet next year following some upgrades.
The ‘Anna’, which will be renamed to Kiviuq 1 will be used to harvest Greenland halibut. It has accommodations for 29 crew with 12 two-person cabins and five individual cabins each with its own washrooms.
“This expanded accommodation will enable us to operate the vessel 24 hours per day on a two-shift basis, and most importantly permit us to have a major increase of Inuit harvesters in our crew,” said AFA Executive Chairman Jaypetee Akeeagok, it also offers a much more comfortable working environment compared to their other fishing vessel the Suvak, he added.
The ship was originally built in Norway in 2001 as a freezer longliner for the Antarctic. The planned upgrades include a new onboard factory for processing turbot and an upgraded Mustad automatic longline system.
“We are extremely pleased to finally be able to purchase a modern longliner as we have been trying to achieve this upgrade to our harvesting capacity for three years, but Covid-19 interrupted our plans to purchase another vessel last year,” said AFA president Lootie Toomasie.