VESSEL REVIEW | Ponta Timbue – Nueva Pescanova’s newest trawler takes on prawn fishing off Mozambique

Spanish seafood company Nueva Pescanova Group has taken delivery of a new freezer beam trawler for use in its East Africa prawn fishing operations out of the Port of Beira in central Mozambique.

Classed by Bureau Veritas and built locally by Armon Shipyard, Ponta Timbue has an LOA of 32.1 metres, a beam of eight metres, and a draught of 3.5 metres. Power is provided by an energy-efficient main engine with a total output of 700 kW while ILO-compliant accommodations are available for up to 22 crewmembers.

The vessel, which has been named after a geographical point on the Mozambican coast, is also equipped with a bycatch and waste separation area, a product cooling system, and a water and air washer for ensuring the best possible catch quality. There is also an electronic management system that will help the crew adjust vessel operations to ensure reduced emissions. Nueva Pescanova said virtual reality was used in the vessel's development to allow the designers to visualise the interior beforehand and ensure that the subsequent construction is carried out more efficiently.

The builder said the deck machinery on Ponta Timbue has also been laid out in such a way that lifting and pulling of trawl nets can be done more quickly, thus minimising exposure of both the crew and the catch while out on deck. This also means significantly greater catch volumes can be achieved on each trip compared to older vessels with less efficient handling systems. This will in turn mean the vessel will need to conduct fewer sailings in order to satisfy quotas.

Ponta Timbue is being operated by Nueva Pescanova's Mozambique subsidiary Pescamar. It will also serve as a training vessel under the company's maritime fisheries training program in collaboration with the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation and other partners in West Africa. The onboard accommodation spaces therefore also include cabins that will be used by crews who will undergo training out at sea.

The new trawler has since departed for Mozambique and has already begun fishing for prawns alongside near identical sister vessels Ponta Matirre and Ponta Macalonga, which were delivered by Armon in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The fourth and final vessel in the series is scheduled to be delivered to Nueva Pescanova in the coming months.

These four 32-metre trawlers and three more 50-metre wet fish trawlers were built by Armon under a €42.5 million (US$52 million) contract to help modernise Nueva Pescanova's operations in Mozambique and Namibia.

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