THE CATCH

Our vessels use mid water nets and selectively trawl for our targeted species (illex squid, loligo squid, Atlantic mackerel, Atlantic herring or Atlantic butterfish). After hauling back the gear and bringing the cod end on board, the fish are graded and then chilled in Refrigerated Sea Water holding tanks (RSW tanks). We are capable of bringing the temperature of the refrigerated sea water down to minus 2 Celsius

PLATE FREEZING

The fish or squid are then packed into pans or fiberboard cartons and frozen on board our vessels via horizontal plate freezers. The freezing time via our horizontal plate freezers is between 4 and 5 hours. While blast frozen products may have a better appearance, plate freezers ensure the best freshness due to drastically decreased freezing times. Our plate-frozen products create a flatter surface for secure stacking, storing and general handling throughout distribution. Our two vessels combined can freeze about 110 MT per day.

GRADING

Grading Loligo squid and Atlantic mackerel are separated into different sizes on deck with grading machines (mackerel) and by hand (loligo squid). They are then stowed into different RSW tanks according to the size. The fish or squid travel from the RSW tanks to the packing tables by conveyor. The F/V Relentless has an automatic speed packing line produced by Carnitech, Inc. The F/V Persistence continues to pack the fish or squid by hand.

Our catches of illex squid, butterfish, and herring are generally an "ocean run." The difference between the smallest squid or fish and the largest squid or fish in any given catch does not vary by more than about 100grs. Our current markets for these species do not require a finer grade. It is important that we determine the size after discharging the catch at our facility in Davisville. After each landing, we defrost up to 24 blocks to collect data concerning length and weight of each specie. This data enables us to create 'easy to read' spreadsheets detailing everything you need to know about the grading of each lot. These records ensure that we give our customers the size in which they desire. All of our sample reports are available to customers and we encourage their review prior to confirming sales.

FREEZING

In about 75 minutes we can fill enough units (pans or cartons) with fish or squid to fill the plate freezers (11-14 MT depending on the specie). The pans or cartons travel from the packing tables to the horizontal plate freezers by conveyor. We manually load and unload the plate freezers, which are at minus 40 degrees Celsius. In 4-5 hours the fish are frozen to minus 26 degrees Celsius and transported below to the fish hold (minus 26 Celsius) via conveyors. After unloading the plate freezers, we discharge more fish or squid from the RSW tanks in order to re-fill the plate freezers. If nothing is stowed in the RSW tanks we catch more fish or squid for the next cycle

DISCHARGING

It may take 6-14 days to fill the holds of our vessels with high quality, sea frozen fish or squid. We can be slowed by weather, poor fishing, logistics and other factors beyond our control. The captains of our vessels inform us of their arrival at which point we call in our stevedores to discharge the vessels. We spend a good part of a day unloading our vessels in front of our facility. Our stevedores board the vessels, palletize the cargo and we hoist the pallets from the vessel to our building with a high-powered crane. Within minutes the cargo is in our cold storage at minus 28 degrees Celsius.

RECEIVING

We tally, weigh and wrap all the palletized cargo prior to placing it in our fully racked cold storage. Our tally records including the pallet weights are always available to our customers. It's rare that a customer may ask for confirmation of the weights due to the fact that we deduct 4% from the frozen weight in order to compensate for drip loss. The drip loss is always 1-2% and this ensures that our customers get an over pack. While we weigh, tally and wrap, we also take several samples from different days of production in order to defrost the fish or squid to collect the required data regarding length and weight (Sample reports).

SHIPPING

With a rail line that comes right to our building, SeaFreeze Ltd. has the ability to load and unload 6 high capacity refrigerated rail cars at a time. Furthermore, we can load and unload 11 trucks at a time. As the largest producer of seafrozen fish on the U.S. East Coast, we ship our product from coast to coast and all around the world.