As part of our Meet the Fleet blog series, we would like to introduce you to the Emeraude.
The Emeraude is owned by two French Companies, Compagnie des Pêches at the Saint-Malo port and Euronor at Boulogne sur Mer. It was built in 2018 in Norway by Kleven shipyard, is 80m long and 16m wide, and has a carrying capacity of 1500 DWT (dead weight tonnes).
The name of the vessel is based on the sea looking an emerald green colour, and it is also the name given to the coast around the port of Saint-Malo in France. The vessel occasionally lands there, Cuxhaven in Germany, Ijmuiden in the Netherlands, or in Norway. 
With its processing plant designed and equipped for mainly PBO (pin bone out) products, the modern vessel has a waterjet-cutting system to cut the fish into final portions. The sizes can correspond to consumer needs, with the maximum weight being around 200g per unit.
The crew use an IQF tunnel for freezing the loins to keep the presentation of the products neat, and they are packed into boxes weighing 980g. Doing this on board preserves the quality of the fish.
Up to 650 pallets, totaling roughly 700 MT (metric tonnes), can be stored in the magnificent cold store. The Emeraude also has a dry cargo hall where 200 MT of fishmeal is kept, as well as a TV area, gym, and sauna cabin where the crew may unwind after a long shift.
There are usually about 38 crew members on each trip, and the ship goes out four to five times a year for eight weeks at a time – however, the annual fishing plan is adapted to fit with the available quota.
The Emeraude is equipped for bottom trawl and pelagic trawl, operating in NEZ and Svalbard to catch cod, and heading to the North Sea for Saithe. The vessel also fishes for haddock and small quantities of bycatch species, and for a few months of the year, it is used to catch redfish.
To check the live location of the Emeraude and the other vessels in our fleet, you can visit Marine Traffic or Vessel Finder.
Keep an eye out for the final blog in this Meet the Fleet series to read all about about our flagship vessel, the Kirkella!
