With the graying of the Alaska and the Pacific Northwest region’s commercial fishing fleets, many companies are now considering strategies for replacing their boats, which will come at the great expense of cost and time.

An ideal fishing boat requires several features: Enough deck space to support catch, processing and freezer areas; crew accommodations; and ample engine room space. These highly specialized boats, which typically range between 250 and 350 feet, can cost millions to build new and spend two to four years in a shipyard before ever hitting the water.

Fortunately, oil and gas majors in the Gulf of Mexico are responding to constrictions in their market by selling laid-up marine assets to relieve the financial burden of the slump – often at a fraction of their cost. There are hundreds of like-new, platform supply vessels (PSVs) sitting idle.

By their very nature, PSVs are convertible, single-deck boats that offer large, open aft-deck spaces. They have propulsion systems and crew accommodations very similar to what is required by fishing boats.

Jensen Maritime Consultants, Crowley Maritime’s Seattle-based naval architecture and marine engineering firm, recently identified this opportunity and has developed a model that considers a PSV’s space, size, stability, price and more to determine whether a PSV is a candidate for conversion.

To learn more about identifying vessels that are ideal for conversion, come see us at booth 515 or visit us online at http://www.jensenmaritime.com/Convert-PSVs-to-Fishing-Vessels.