The majority of the raw material used for our product range is supplied by our own vessels. The vessels fish in Greenlandic waters as well as other parts of the world, all operating under Polar Seafood’s fishing licenses.
Factory trawlers
Factory trawlers are large vessels, operated by up to 35 people, and able to process the fish right from catch to a “ready-to-eat” finished product. The seafood processed onboard the trawler meets the highest authority approved selfaudit standards for hygiene and quality. All products are frozen and stored onboard until the vessel arrives at port.
Polar Seafood’s trawlers are built and equipped to operate world-wide and are mainly fishing for cold-water prawns, cod, saithe, haddock, Greenland halibut and redfish.
Freshfish vessels
From time of catch until the vessel arrives at port, the fish is kept well iced to ensure the very best quality when delivered to Polar Seafood’s land-based factories. At each factory, the laboratory team checks the intake again, making sure that the raw material is still of the highest standard before processing.
Our freshfish vessels mainly catch cod, redfish, Greenland halibut, cold-water prawns and crabs.
The majority of Polar Seafood's fish and shellfish is landed using our state-of-the-art fleet of large trawlers, built specifically for fishing in the unpolluted Arctic Ocean
Fishing methods and fishing gear
A broad variety of fishing gear is essential to catch the fish and shellfish for Polar Seafood’s wide product range. We continue to invest a substantial amount of money and time in developing environmentally safe solutions, whilst considering the natural behaviour of fish, sea birds and marine mammals, always with the aim of avoiding environmental damage.
Since 2004, all prawn trawlers have been equipped with fish-excluding devices, the so-called Normore grid, to minimise bycatch of cod, Greenland halibut and other fish species. Other examples are sorting grids in ground fish trawls, designed to keep the juvenile fish out of the trawl. For instance, just by changing the time and place for the gillnet settings for lumpfish, this has reduced the bycatch of seabirds from substantial amounts to almost zero (when the nets are set, the seabirds, mainly common eider, are elsewhere; when the seabirds are present, no fishery takes place).
Experiments with new types of trawl doors have shown to be effective in reducing the impact of the fishery on the sea bed fauna – a major concern to many environmentalists.
Such precautions, known as “technical measures”, are ongoing and Polar Seafood takes great responsibility to stay ahead of the game. To maintain the highest degree of environmental responsibility within our management and among our fishermen, we work closely with the fishing gear technologists and the biologist, always aiming to serve nature in the most effective way.
Since 2004 all prawn trawls have been equipped with fish-excluding devices – the so-called Normore grid – to minimise bycatch of cod, Greenland halibut and other fish species.
Polar Princess
The Polar Princess is 88 metres long and is built for fishing and processing cod, haddock, saithe, Greenland halibut, mackerel and herring.
