A day at Sea

Vessels trawl at about 2.5 knots, with their twin rigged otter trawls spreading four nets over 40 meters. Each trawl consists of two trawls joined by a steel sledge in the middle. The use of Turtle Excluder Devices (TED) and By-catch Reduction Devices (BRD) on nets is mandatory on all vessels. The Crew ensures that the deck is cleaned, sanitized, and rinsed before the catch is landed. The catch is washed with seawater immediately upon landing to remove mud and particles of sand. Sorting starts immediately with prawns / shrimps given preference because of their perishable nature. At the same time the by-catch of Crab, Cuttlefish, Red Mullet, Lobster, Octopus and other fish is sorted into separate baskets.

The Crew are trained to check the quality of the product. This is carried out during rinsing and while the product is graded. The catch is graded manually according to sizes determined by market demand. Product is arranged carefully inside inner packets and placed in trays for freezing. After the products are set in trays, they are placed in the plate freezer and frozen to attain, a core temp of minimum -18 Celsius. After ensuring the core temperature the frozen products are unloaded from the plate freezer and packed in master cartons as specified grade wise. All the packed full cartons are strapped and neatly stacked in the fish hold. The vessel Engineer with the aid of a temperature recorder ensures that the fish hold maintains a minimum temperature of – 20 deg Celsius.