Mowi Canada East wellboat launched at Spanish yard
A wellboat that will service salmon farmer Mowi’s sites in Atlantic Canada has been launched at the Zamakona Shipyard in Bilbao, northern Spain. The vessel, owned by wellboat operator Intership AS and called the Inter Atlantic, is scheduled to be delivered in the spring.
The vessel is 72.2 metres long and 17 metres wide and has a well volume of 2,200m³.
It will be equipped with a fully integrated reverse osmosis (RO) system that can produce more than 5,000m³ of fresh water per day, and will have a large production capacity relative to its well volume.
Sea trials
Shipyard manager Luis Magro told Fish Farming Expert’s Norwegian sister site, Kyst.no, that the yard started construction at the end of 2020 and is now in the process of further equipping the boat and preparing for sea trials.
Reverse osmosis will enable to vessel to be used for freshwater treatments as well as transferring live fish.
“Intership has used freshwater treatments with vessel-produced freshwater on board Inter Caledonia since 2016, and this new vessel will be the company’s second vessel with a freshwater treatment system,” said Magro, who added that the wellboat sector is one of the yard’s strategic markets.
“We have previously built two wellboats for Sølvtrans AS and work hard commercially to attract more wellboat owners to our yard.”
Optimal fuel consumption
NSK Ship Design has designed the wellboat and Mats Nygaard Johnsen, general manager of the company, told Kyst.no that the design is adapted to the conditions and production in Canada.
“The boat will be equipped with RO for freshwater treatment, as well as good capacity for closed system transport. The vessel is equipped with a main engine, shaft generator and auxiliary engines in a setup that ensures optimal fuel consumption in the variable operating profile of the vessel.”
He said the fitting out, plus a careful and detailed start-up and testing of the fish handling package, remains to be done before the vessel is handed over to Intership.
