Fishing Vessel, Commercial

(in Russian, promyslovoe sudno), a ship used for catching and processing fish and other marine animals, including whales. A distinction is made between commercial fishing vessels proper (trawlers, seiners, drifters, whalers, and sealers) and factory ships (mother ships for preserving crabs and fish, whale factory ships, and fish-processing refrigerator ships). Many commercial fishing vessels— for example, large freezer-trawlers—are used for both catching and processing marine animals. In addition to special fishing gear and processing equipment, the vessels often have cargo cooling holds.

Many commercial fishing vessels have unlimited cruising range and are capable of traveling for 60 to 80 days on their own (away from the mother ship). The displacement of commercial fishing vessels reaches tens of thousands of tons. For example, the Soviet whale factory ship Sovetskaia Ukraina has a displacement of 44,900 tons. The power plant capacity of factory ships is 17 megawatts or greater. Whalers reach speeds of about 18knots(33km/hr).