Construction of Environmentally Friendly Fishing Vessel Underway

This longliner, named the Northern Leader and owned by Alaska fishing company Alaskan Leader Fisheries LLC, is currently under construction at J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding Corporation of Tacoma, Wash. Jensen's design services to date have included the complete marine-engineering services for the vessel, from the concept design phase all the way through production engineering and 3-D modeling.

"Jensen is very pleased to bring its more than 50 years of naval architecture and marine engineering services to Alaskan Leader Fisheries and their new longliner project," said Johan Sperling, company vice president. "It has been exciting to utilise our new in-house production engineering services to develop an excellent design and drawing package, which has made the vessel a pleasure to build and more efficient to construct. This longliner is a success in terms of its fantastic design and ease of construction all of which are testaments to Jensens great work in designing all types of vessels.

Jensen will continue to work closely with customer Alaskan Leader Fisheries and J.M. Martinac throughout the construction phase to ensure a successful completion.

The project development, vessel design, and construction of such a significant commercial fishing vessel like the Northern Leader would not be possible without the representation of Jensen and Martinac, said Alaskan Leader Fisheries Nick Delaney, managing director. To us, they represent the best possible partnership in bringing this vessel into the Alaskan offshore fishing fleet.

J.M. Martinac is pleased to be part of the team building the Northern Leaderfor Alaskan Leader Fisheries, said Jonathan Platt, vice president of J.M. Martinac. Jensen has delivered a first-class design, offering an accuracy that is translating into a vessel that is efficient to construct.

The Northern Leader will be 184' X 42' X 18.75' in size and will be used to support the longline fisheries of the North Pacific, Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. Longline fishing is a commercial fishing technique that uses a long line, called the main line, with baited hooks attached at intervals.

This environmentally conscious vessel design will allow for full utilization of the targeted fish species by using equipment that has minimal environmental impact on the ocean's ecosystem, while maintaining the lightest possible operational fossil fuel footprint. Designed to be fully diesel-electric, per customer specification, theNorthern Leader will feature lower emissions and higher fuel efficiency. The vessel has been designed to reduce waste and maximise the value of the catch through full utilization of primary and secondary less-valuable products. The vessel has the space and capacity to save components of the catch that would have been discarded previously.

The National Marine Fisheries has determined that the industry may capture up to 12 per cent of the oceans available catch, said Mr Delaney. This fishing limit is one of many ways that the industry ensures sustainable fishing. Jensen has designed this new longliner to help meet this limit while maintaining a responsible, sustainable catch. The Northern Leader is not only one of the largest longliners in the world, but its also one of the greenest ever designed.

Once built, this vessel will have one of the largest freezer hold capacities of any longliner vessel. The vessel will be designed with more than 38,000 cubic feet of freezer hold, representing a frozen production capacity of 1,867,000 pounds, and will be capable of fishing 76,800 hooks using a Mustad Autoline Super Baiter (Norway). Daily freezing capacity will be a maximum of 153,000 pounds per day of H&G production. Fuel capacity of the vessel will be approximately 136,000 gallons.

Its propulsion will be powered by two Schottel Z-Drive rudder propellers, type SRP1012FP (1,000 kW each) and one Schottel tunnel thruster type STT170FP (300 kW). The diesel generating system will be provided by NC Power Systems of Seattle and will consist of four Caterpillar C32 gensets rated at 715 kW each, one Caterpillar C18 gensets rated at 425 kW each, and one Caterpillar C9 genset rated at 238 kW.

The vessel will be ABS classed for the Maltese Cross, A1 Fishing Vessel with AMS. Total international tonnage is estimated at 1800 ITC.

The delivery date for the Northern Leader is April 2013, and it will be homeported in Kodiak, Alaska. The construction of this vessel will create more than 100 jobs and apprenticeships for Washingtons skilled Union workforce.