Commercial electric fishing boat pioneers

Polyboatglobal.com is not only about widening the uses of pleasure-boating – but also about commercial e-boating, including electric professional fishing vessels. It started in 2008, when the diesel-electric Shinei Maru No. 66 became the world’s first hybrid fishing trawler, operating from Otoshibe, Japan.

In Norway, the hybrid-electric Scania-Corvus Angelsen Senior and the Siemens pure-electric Karoline. Norwegian Royal Salmon of Trondheim have been operating a diesel-electric hybrid to run the vessel solely on battery power during short trips. When working on fish-farming sites,  it operates in diesel-electric mode on longer journeys. Salmar Farming AS, a salmon farmer, is currently operating the 14-metre Elfrida for commercial fish farming from its home port of the Island of Frøya, in Norway,

At Tayvallich on Scotland’s West Coast, Hans Unkles has electrified Lorna Jane, his 1978 lobster fishing boat making it the first 21-footer in the UK fishing fleet to be entirely powered by electricity supplied mostly by solar panels during the summer. 

Off eastern Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, Membertou First Nation is operating the Lektrike’l Walipotl for commercial lobster fishing. In the USA, Maine’s Casco Bay, regularly navigates his all-electric 28ft workboat for cultivating oysters at Maine Ocean Farms. In France, LPMA (Maritime and Aquaculture Professional School) of Bastia is operating Alba France’s first hydrogen-electric powered fishing training vessel In India, the Research Centre of the ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology are operating the Vikalpika, India’s first Electric Fishing Vessel, at Gorai Creek, Mumbai

And in case you think these are only one-offs, NavAlt Shipyard in Kochi, India, are collaborating with the Shell Foundation, to operate the SRAV (shark in Malayalam) solar-electric fishing vessel,the first of a fleet of 100 such vessels