All Aboard the Kirkella!
All aboard the Kirkella! Craig had the pleasure of being invited by Smales Fish Merchants to be onboard the Kirkella, along with other industry professionals. Smales, KFE and FASFA showcased the vessel’s impressive operations and state of the art technology.
What is the Kirkella?
Kirkella is the UK’s leading British cod and haddock freezer trawler based in Kingston upon Hull, England. Part of the UK’s distant waters fishing fleet, the vessel was registered in June 2018, is 81 m long, has a 16 m beam, and measures 3,976 gross tons. The crew's accommodation contains a gym and cinema. The Kirkella’s main areas of operation are the Barents Sea, Greenland waters, Northwest Atlantic and the Norwegian Sea. Each expedition takes four to six weeks.
We witnessed the full operation below deck and learned all about how the fish are caught and prepared onboard ready for us to fry in our shops. We were served a delicious lunch of fish and chips prepared by the fantastic crew.
Some facts about the Kirkella:
It takes 7000 litres of Diesel to fill the Kirkella, costing £800,000 for one tank, using 650 litres per hour
Aided by GPS, sensors on the nets and sophisticated control systems, modern trawling is now so precise that wastage is negligible
The first fish reach onboard freezers 40 minutes after being caught
The Kirkella uses 2 nets which are both 1.5 miles wide
On its last trip, the Kirkella caught 750 tonnes of fish
Each trawl lasts between 30 minutes and six hours
Undersized and juvenile fish escape the catch through a grid in the net
