Vladivostok-based LLC Antey, one of the Russian Far East's largest quota holders, has obtained the first new crabber-processor from Pella shipyard, close to Saint-Petersburg.

In mid-June the new vessel, named Rusj, is set to head to the North to conduct crab catching trials in the Barents Sea, later on traveling to the Far East.

The new vessel is based on the 03070 design, jointly developed by Pella shipyard and Antey for specialized bottom harvesting and processing of red king crab, opilio snow crab, blue crab and other crab species, with Japanese style cone traps.

Baskets placed in a refrigerated seawater (RSW) tank with 461 cubic meters of storage capacity are used for transporting the live crab.

The crabber-processor has an overall length of 50.5 meters, a width of 12.6 meters, gross tonnage of 1,182 metric tons and is equipped with a Wartsila 6L20 1200 kW diesel engine. It houses a crew of 28.

The new crabber is unique due to its possibility to be equipped with a fish processing workshop, Andrei Polomar, general director for Antey told IntraFish in May 2018 when the company was first making plans for the crabber.

More new crabbers in the pipeline

The vessel is not to be the only newly built crab catching and processing vessel for Antey. In April, the company signed a deal with Nakhodka shipyard for the construction of another six new crabbers. Antey didn’t reveal the total cost of the vessels, but some experts estimate the total investment at a level of around $90 million (€82.7 million).

The company expects all vessels to be built within the next five years.

Antey built up its catch share at the crab quota auctions held by Russia’s fishery agency, Rosrybolovstvo, in autumn last year becoming one of Russia’s top five crab catching companies.

Its subsidiary Antey Sever purchased half of 10 lots for the Barents Sea opilio snow crab, investing RUB 18.22 billion (€225.8 million/$247.1 million) in auctioned quotas. Another arm of the holding - Antey and Alestar - won one lot each in the Far East, paying RUB 3.57 billion (€44.2 million/$48.4 million) and RUB 4.44 billion (€54.5 million/$59.7 million), respectively.

At present, Antey operates 17 catching vessels fishing in the Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea and the Sea of Japan, as well as in the seas of Ross and Amundsen. Its main species are Far Eastern crab species, salmon, cod, pollock and mackerel, which it exports, processed-at-sea and live, to China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.

Last year, Antey delivered around 4,000 metric tons of red king crab and 2,000 metric tons of opilio snow crab to China, accounting for 35 percent of total Russian crab supplies to the country, according to Antey.

Fisheries

Russian fishing giant takes ownership of new vessel as part of $89 million investment