While Polar Fishing Gear has its range of standard trawl doors for fishing vessels of all sizes, it has never been shy of putting time and resources into research and development, and its Poseidon controllable trawl doors have already been shown to have significant potential for both pelagic and demersal fisheries.
Awarded an Icelandic Fisheries Exhibition innovation prize some years ago, the Poseidon development has been a painstaking process and a number of obstacles have had to be overcome. Now these doors are set to be in commercial use before long, alongside the company's regular trawl doors.
"We have been busy all this year," he said.
"Increasingly, there has been strong demand from medium-sized trawlers for more efficient trawl doors and we have supplied Thor doors to several skippers in Ireland, and in Mediterranean Spain our Jupiter pelagic doors, fitted with keels for towing off the seabed to spread demersal trawls, have become very popular."
He added that the Covid-19 crisis has affected everyone and activity has slowed down, but the demand is still there.
"These medium-sized trawlers tend to be the ones that are most affected by the lockdown, as these are the catches that find their way to restaurant tables. But as lockdown requirements start to be relaxed in some countries, we're starting to see activity resume," he said.
Atli Már Jósafatsson has also been in the same business from the outset, joining the family company of J Hinriksson in his teens, and has spent much of his working life around trawl doors, not least since establishing Polar Fishing Gear with its own range of demersal, pelagic and semi-pelagic doors.
"IceFish is an important platform for Polar Fishing Gear. This is our home market, so in many ways this is almost a family affair as many of the skippers and fleet managers we see at IceFish are people we have practically grown up with," he said.
"But IceFish also attracts people from fishing companies around the world who want to know what's new in northern Europe – so IceFish is an event that we couldn't allow ourselves to miss."
If you are interested in exhibiting, sponsoring, attending or speaking at 2020 IceFish please call +44 01329 825 335 or email info@icefish.is.
International sales:
Diane Lillo Tel. +44 1329 825 335 or email dlillo@mercatormedia.com
Icelandic sales:
Birgir Þór Jósafatsson Tel: +354 896 2277 birgir@icefish.is or Bjarni Thor Jonsson GSM: +354 896 6363 bjarni@icefish.is
