The US company American Seafoods is a major seafood company based in Seattle. The company operates several large trawlers, mainly fishing Alaskan pollock, in the Berings Sea. Other species caught in the area, to a smaller extent though, are Yellow fin and Southern Blue whiting.
The fishing area reaches from the Bering Sea in the north, more specifically just north of St. George Island, to the coast of Oregon State in the south. The region is a major game trail for Alaska pollock and the fleet is mostly based in Dutch Harbor on the Aleutan islands where the Pacific meets the Bering Sea.
Earlier this year two of Naust Marine´s employees went on a sea trial tour on board the trawler Norhern Eagle, one of American Seafoods Alaska ships, equipped with ATW towing winch system from Naust Marine. The pollock season had not yet started and it was therefore decided to take a tour of Yellow fin fishing.
There are 125 men and women in the crew of Northern Eagle and the production capacity is 180 tons per day, plus a 150 tonnes flour factory. According to the Naust Marine employee's the catch was as if sand was being shovelled from the seabed. 180-190 tonnes were frozen per day and usually is was not necessary to haul for more than 30 minutes to get about 40-50 tonnes of flat fish.
In this area bad weathers are frequent with strong winds and temperatures down to minus 10 degrees Celcius. This means significant ice on all equipment, dispite the size of the vessel.
Although the pressure on the equipment was high and conditions difficult the Naust Marine technology proved withstanding.