Saga Sea krill harvesting and production

F/T Saga Sea is a Norwegian registered factory trawler owned by the Aker Seafoods Antarctic AS, and is licensed to fish krill in Area 48.1-4. Aker has developed a patented new environmental friendly continuous trawling system, named Aker Eco Harvesting System. The system is described in the paper and is based on a conventional trawl with a connected rubber hose to the cod end of the trawl. The catch is brought onboard continuously through a suction driven system. The system is completely closed. The vessel has a processing plant onboard, which is approved for manufacturing food and feed grade products from Antarctic Krill. Approved product categories are krill meal, krill oil, round frozen krill, krill mince and krill protein concentrates. The vessel has so far carried out two fishing trips since 19 June 2006. The last trip started in September. The vessel carries an UK (MRAG) international scientific observer onboard. There is an agreement between the Aker Seafood Antarctic and The Institute of Marine Research in Norway to use Saga Sea as platform for collecting scientific data, and laboratory facilities are installed.