Just christened by the Flemish Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries last month the new state-of-the-art beam trawler, Z.98 Windroos, from Zeebrugge is the first of the new generation of Belgian beam trawlers to arrive in Ireland.
Fishing for sole, plaice, skate or monkfish the 38-metre Z.98 Windroos operates in the southern or central North Sea, the Irish Sea and the western waters or the Bay of Biscay.
Dun Laoghaire Harbour’s strategic location as an EU port in the middle of the Irish Sea may have been overlooked by commercial fishing fleets for years but since Brexit, it appears Belgian fishermen have been quick to see the advantage of the Dublin Bay port.
Windroos is the third brand new Belgian beam trawl vessel to be commissioned this year, after 20 years without replacements, according to Belgian fishing sources.
A beam trawl net is held open by a steel beam with two 'shoes' and pulled over the seafloor and mostly used to catch shrimps, flatfish or fish living close to the bottom.