New Saputi II fishing vessel to arrive in Canada in May
Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries Corp.’s new ship can process twice as much shrimp as the vessel currently in use
Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries will soon start operating the 79-metre-long fishing ship currently under construction in Spain. (Photo courtesy of Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries Corp.)
A new $100-million fishing vessel is expected to make its way to Nunavut in time for the 2026 fishing season.
“Saputi II will enhance product quality and efficiency at sea,” Harry Flaherty, president and CEO of Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries Corp., told Qikiqtani Inuit Association board members Oct. 7 while describing the new ship.
Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries Corp. is owned by Qikiqtaaluk Corp., which is the business arm of Qikiqtani Inuit Association, the organization responsible for promoting the rights of Qikiqtani Inuit.
Saputi means “fish trap” in Inuktitut. It’s also the name of the 76-metre-long ship currently used by Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries. Built in 1987, it will soon make way for the new, larger Saputi II.
Saputi II will be able to carry up to 1,100 tonnes of shrimp — twice as much as its namesake predecessor — or 750 tonnes of turbot.
The new ship’s onboard processing plant will be able to freeze 50 tonnes of turbot or 100 tonnes of shrimp per day, roughly double the capacity of the plant on the current ship. That should allow the Saputi II to fish for longer periods without docking, Flaherty said in an interview.
“It’s a beautiful facility with eco-friendly engines, dining rooms and a movie theatre,” Flaherty said. “So we’re looking forward to it.”
Designed by Norwegian company Skipsteknisk, with support from Allswater Marine Consultants in Nova Scotia, the Saputi II is under construction at Freire shipyard in Vigo, Spain. The ship is 79 metres long, 17 metres wide, and has capacity for 34 crew members.
With a price tag of around $100 million, Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries announced the deal to buy the new vessel two years ago. Now the ship is set to arrive in Canada in mid-May next year and make it to Iqaluit in August, Flaherty said, adding he will soon go to Spain to inspect the vessel.
Once Saputi II is ready to use, the older ship will be listed for sale.
In 2024, the old Saputi caught a total of 7,504 tonnes of seafood — 4,616 tonnes of shrimp and 2,888 tonnes of turbot, according to Qikiqtaaluk Corp.’s annual report.
Saputi II will be bigger than its predecessor, but still smaller than Baffin Fisheries’ newly-christened Inuksuk II fishing vessel. At 79.5 metres in length, the Inuksuk II is about a half-metre longer than Saputi II.
Wonder , how long before , we humans fish the ocean out ?
Don’t fret, the Land Guardians have it all under control. Can’t ship more Ore out of Baffinland, the largest employer in NU outside of the GN, might disrupt marine life.
Oh QC wants to increase its fleet and take 15 thousand tons of seafood out of the ocean while disrupting marine-life in the process. Thumbs up!!!! And now they can increase that to 20,000 tons!
With china’s tariff
And china don’t want the canola next the fish of Nunavut
With the economy the way it is and all the tariff’s
I want my job back and fish turbot. Please give me my job back.
Lol
Start acting normal then you act like a kid in town when it’s full moon
You will have to apply with the company. I’m pretty sure they don’t monitor Nunatsiaq News comments section for potential seafarers.
Does your stomach make noise when your drive your Honda ?
You complain a lot for a highly educated person
True to Canada, let someone else build all of our stuff. As we woke, tiptoe through the tulips having ferries built in China. And drunk talk… gonna sell our steel, and orange man bad.
The fishing ship Saputi II, is built in Spain. And EU steel used.
Though Canadian shipyards are backed up past 2030 building two icebreakers for Canada. One on the east coast and one on the west coast to be 2030 and 2032 ready.
In comparison, Finland will build 4 ice breakers for the USA in Finland, and 4 in the USA, a joint venture deal. Finland supplies all of its steel made in Finland.
But Finland will have the 4 ice breakers built by 2027-2028. And the four USA-built ships by 2029-2030. That’s 8 icebreakers to Canada’s one.
Will Qikiqtani Inuit Association, Kivalliq Inuit Association and Sakku go all in building/owning a shipyard in Churchill, Manitoba?
Build icebreakers, ship repairs, naval ships. Would sure take the strain off of the 2 urban ship-building yards in southern Canada.
Now we’re talking — Canadian arctic sovereignty, critical minerals, steel, and Arctic security.
It’s direct Arctic access. And Inuit jobs, jobs, jobs.
Could be equivalent to Murmansk (Russia) or Tampere/Helsinki (Finland).
Toss away the Arctic University and let’s get moving on high-paying trades, trades, trades training.
Also drop in LNG Churchill shipping yard because LNG loves cool temperatures. Jobs jobs jobs.
All the commenter of this sure does not understand anything of Nunavut Fisheries and including the hires of employment in Office anymore as board members of HTOs/ HTAs thinks they are doing well but slowing down businesses to catch up ,
QC had announced first to build the Saputi 2 besides Inukshuk 2 from BFC and gained $1 million from QIA to start this off as mentioned at a Trade Show back in 2022 and stalled why no news again till todate finally ready for 2026 !,
Management playing games as BFC paid $72 million for the same exactly same boat and QC is paying $100 million is ridiculous missed Management,
Our Inuit funds wasted my opinion this is all …