The World’s Largest Floating Fish Factory Unveiled.
44 replies, posted
[release]Wild fish stocks around the world are crashing, in part due to over-fishing. Now, I'm not saying the Lafayette fish processing ship is the sole cause of the problem, but the 1,500 tons of fish it freezes and ships a day probably isn't helping the situation.
The Lafayette is the $100 million mother ship of the Pacific Andes fishing fleet. It measures 228 meters long by 32 meters wide. It acts as a floating processing center for a fleet of five super-trawler ships and seven other catcher vessels; collecting and freezing the trawlers' catches, then packaging and unloading the frozen fish onto shore-bound ferries.
Once one of these collecting vessels has caught its fill, it'll come abreast of the Lafayette and pump the contents of its hold into the processing ship at one of three pumping stations—the two stations on the port side can handle two simultaneous trawlers but the third pumping station on the stern of the vessel is only used when rough seas make pulling alongside unsafe.
Onboard the Lafayette, the fish are first deposited in one of 32 refrigerated primary holding tanks, each with a 10,000 cubic meters capacity. It can support much as 7000 tons of fish in freezing waters. From there, a vacuum pump sucks the fish from the holding tanks and dumps them on one of three large hoppers. These hoppers then lift the catch up onto a fish grading system.
Grading fish by size is an automated process, as mechanical graders offer improved precision over manually sizing them, six to ten times more accurate in fact. Human sorters still predominantly perform the sorting of fish by species and freshness. Grading fish by size is an essential step in processing. As the fish roll down a slope, they fall through one of four specifically-sized slots. These machines can sort anywhere from one to 15 tons of fish every hour. Once sorted, the fish are manually inspected and then deposited into a series of secondary storage tanks.
From here, the fish are pumped along to the freezing lines. These six lines consist of a series of vertical plate freezers—232 in total—each simultaneously flash freezing 52, 20-kilogram blocks of fish measuring 100mm by 530mm by 530mm. In all, the Lafayette produces 12,064 blocks per cycle—freezing 1,500 tons of fish every day.
After the fish are solid, they're packed into cartons which are loaded onto pallets. These pallets are either stored in the refrigerated cargo hold—which is designed to hold 14,000 tons of fish on pallets at -26 degree C and is serviced by a fleet of 12 electric forklifts—or conveyed topside for transfer to reefer vessels ferry the fish ashore.
The Lafayette, on the other hand, does not go back to shore. It's designed to stay perpetually at sea with supplies and fuel ferried out to it. Since it acts as the primary processing station for the cathers of the support fleet, any interruption in the Lafayette's function would cause the entire fleet to stop. This ship is so huge that it replaces the production of seven standard factory ships—saving 35 tons of fuel daily and reducing the necessary crew by 300.
The Lafayette operates in the South Pacific Ocean fishing for Chilean Jack Mackerel, a white fish primarily consumed in West Africa and currently worth $1000/ton. It's the seventh most harvested fish in the world. Pacific Andes, the company that owns the Lafayette, was one of the first fishing companies to commercially supply the Alaskan Pollock. Pollock is now used in the likes of McDonald's fish fillets.[/release]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW4nM956PR0&feature=player_embedded[/media]
[url]http://gizmodo.com/5845939/the-worlds-largest-floating-fish-factory-freezes-547000-tons-of-mackerel-a-year[/url]
Holy Mackerel.
Sink it. Or scrap it.
I don't care what happens, just get rid of it. I like having fish in the ocean, it's sort of impertinent to the survival of the oceanic ecosystem.
[QUOTE=ewitwins;32648960]Sink it. Or scrap it.
I don't care what happens, just get rid of it. I like having fish in the ocean, it's sort of impertinent to the survival of the oceanic ecosystem.[/QUOTE]
right away mr. gorbachev
[QUOTE=ewitwins;32648960]Sink it. Or scrap it.
I don't care what happens, just get rid of it. I like having fish in the ocean, it's sort of impertinent to the survival of the oceanic ecosystem.[/QUOTE]
I think you mean important or pertinent. Because impertinent means, like, presumptuous
[editline]6th October 2011[/editline]
Anyway as shitty as this is for the environment you have to admit the engineering of this thing is fucking amazing.
[QUOTE=ewitwins;32648960]Sink it. Or scrap it.
I don't care what happens, just get rid of it. I like having fish in the ocean, it's sort of impertinent to the survival of the oceanic ecosystem.[/QUOTE]
then how are you supposed to eat them
Go humans! Destroying ecosystems since 50,000 BCE.
Goodbye fish.
Pretty cool from a engineering standpoint.
That "fish vacuum transport system" sounds hilarious though .
[QUOTE=yawmwen;32649219]Go humans! Destroying ecosystems since 50,000 BCE.[/QUOTE]
Because everyone is totally OK with this, and actively supports it.
[QUOTE=Sumap;32649235]Pretty cool from a engineering standpoint.
That "fish vacuum transport system" sounds hilarious though .[/QUOTE]
[img]http://www.wildsalmonman.com/salmon/wholeh_g.jpg[/img]
Not if you're a fish.
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;32649246]Because everyone is totally OK with this, and actively supports it.[/QUOTE]
Yup everyone does. There is absolutely no one that can argue with humanity asserting dominance over the worthless creatures of the sea. If you do you're probably a hippy, which is like sub-human.
How is it great that 300 persons lost their job?
[QUOTE=yawmwen;32649282]Yup everyone does. There is absolutely no one that can argue with humanity asserting dominance over the worthless creatures of the sea. If you do you're probably a hippy, which is like sub-human.[/QUOTE]
You'll think they're worthless right up until we're clean out of them.
[QUOTE=Sled Dog;32649561]You'll think they're worthless right up until we're clean out of them.[/QUOTE]
No I'll laugh because if they were so great they wouldn't get caught. Yea, fish are so fucking dumb I am glad we are overfishing them.
Noooooooooooo
Regardless of whether it's destroying the ecosystem or not, that shit's an engineering marvel. Damn.
[editline]6th October 2011[/editline]
also is the narrator of the video a robot or not I can't tell
[QUOTE=ewitwins;32648960]Sink it. Or scrap it.
I don't care what happens, just get rid of it. I like having fish in the ocean, it's sort of impertinent to the survival of the oceanic ecosystem.[/QUOTE]
Shut your mouth hippie
Wow. So much angst in this thread.
This is like a replacement for three factory ships they're taking out of service anyway. It's barely any different than if it was never made. There are so many fish in the ocean it's beyond comprehension but someone is going to "sink or scrap" a multi-million dollar ship with the potential for both economic benefits and the ability to feed many people many times over? Just because "ur destrying teh ecosystem"
This thread is a perfect example of fear mongering if I ever saw one.
[editline]6th October 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=fishyfish777;32650680]Regardless of whether it's destroying the ecosystem or not, that shit's an engineering marvel. Damn.
[editline]6th October 2011[/editline]
also is the narrator of the video a robot or not I can't tell[/QUOTE]
The company is Chinese. Probably had to hire someone to translate and with that in mind it wasn't bad.
Fuck.
this is disgusting
They should work on making the process as efficient as possible, maintaining fish stocks at a high of a level as possible and produce as much fish products from it as possible.
So that the fish don't die out, we have as much fish as possible and they are as cheap as possible.
A large capacity of lubricating oil? [I]WHY[/I]
Also, wouldn't it be much more efficient to build fishing platforms like oil platforms, except they're gigantic floating nets in which fish grow into, then fishing is done within these areas. So you essentially create mini-ecosystems, with guaranteed fish. It doesn't hurt the environment (theoretically) because it's done in deep water, and it doesn't send species to extinction.
They make overfishing sound like a good thing.
[QUOTE=CodeMonkey3;32652019]Wow. So much angst in this thread.
This is like a replacement for three factory ships they're taking out of service anyway. It's barely any different than if it was never made. There are so many fish in the ocean it's beyond comprehension but someone is going to "sink or scrap" a multi-million dollar ship with the potential for both economic benefits and the ability to feed many people many times over? Just because "ur destrying teh ecosystem"
This thread is a perfect example of fear mongering if I ever saw one.
[editline]6th October 2011[/editline]
The company is Chinese. Probably had to hire someone to translate and with that in mind it wasn't bad.[/QUOTE]
Well, trawling alone is a very indiscriminate fishing method. Fishing for a specific species is a hard thing to do. Whether fishing is sustainable or not depends on the stock of fish. Unlike beef and other farmed animals, the amount of food we can harvest is not up to us. We can only harvest so much fish or the stocks will collapse.
As for the Chilean Jack Mackerel: as far as I can tell, evidence suggests that it's populations are declining. However, data is hard to find. There is a species in the area that may be a by-catch from Trawler fishing. The Chilean Sea bass. Data is also hard to find for this species. (actually I have class in about an hour so I don't have time to go in depth.)
I found this though for the Mackerel:
[url]http://www.fishsource.org/fishery/sustainability_analysis/Management%20Quality?fishery=Chilean+jack+mackerel[/url]
[quote]As part of the background set forth as the likely cause of changes in the spatial and seasonal distribution pattern of the resource, there is on the one hand the early migration of the resource from the 200-nautical-mile coastal strip and, on the other, the high abundance of Giant Squid in the central-southern area during 2003 and 2004 which, due to its voracity, might have had the effect of either preventing the resource from entering the coastal area or drawing it away. There is no other background that could explain those changes based on, for example, alterations in the environment or other causes. In short, official technical reports conclude that there is uncertainty as to whether the less presence of jack mackerel in the coastal area is due to a temporary change in its spatial distribution or to a decline in its abundance.[/quote]
How much fish we can catch as a species does not come down to us. We can only fish as much as the ocean will let us. If it hasn't already, it will soon happen where the population of people cannot be sustained off fish. We cannot increase production of sea food with the increase in our population. We just can't. We have to draw a line somewhere or the whole fishery will collapse and then no one will be able to have it.
We need to farm the oceans. Not in pens, but open range. It is our responsibility to make sure the species are sustainable in every way. If there is even a hint that they are not, we need to halt fishing for however long it will take for the populations to get back up. We need to find the numbers where we can have the maximum quota with the species still increasing in numbers. I'll leave you with a quote from Jacques Cousteau:
"We must plant the sea and herd its animals using the sea as farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about - farming replacing hunting. "
Fish will become an exclusive and expensive food in a few decades as a result of overfishing. The ocean ecosystem cannot keep up with the increasing quantities of fish we pull out of it.
[QUOTE=Im Crimson;32653986]Fish will become an exclusive and expensive food in a few decades as a result of overfishing. The ocean ecosystem cannot keep up with the increasing quantities of fish we pull out of it.[/QUOTE]
Lemon Sole should be saved because it tastes so damned nice. Lemon Sole master race.
lets see china back a knock off version of this boat
God damn it stop raping the sea.
I just can imagine nice little dead zones rolling through the ocean as this floats by.
[QUOTE=krakadict;32654653]lets see china back a knock off version of this boat[/QUOTE]
The video is from China.
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