Daily Sitka Sentinel

Grant Aids Project to Fish on Kilowatts

By GARLAND KENNEDY

Sentinel Staff Writer

As part of an effort to push Sitka’s fishing fleet away from carbon-emitting propulsion, a Sitka troller has received a $40,000 grant to add electric power to augment the diesel power of his classic wooden boat.

The award came through the Sitka-based Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, one of three organizations chosen by the New York-based Acme Smoked Fish Corp. for grants to mitigate the effect of climate change. The other two projects are in Maine.

Eric Jordan said his goal is to reduce his boat’s fuel consumption and carbon signature. And he’s far from alone in his project to decarbonize. He’s worked alongside ALFA and Executive Director Linda Behnken to secure technical assistance and funding.

The F/V I Gotta is pictured this afternoon at ANB Harbor. A $40,000 grant will pay for an electric motor to be installed onboard the troller in order to cut carbon emissions. (Sentinel Photo)

Reducing his boat’s emissions is in line with other climate-friendly actions Jordan has taken – he drives an electric car and heats his home by heat pump rather than oil or gas.

Behnken said cutting the fishing fleet’s carbon emissions has been a long-term goal for ALFA.

“We started in a partnership with the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation to understand fuel usage by the fleet and help the fleet understand ways to reduce fuel consumption, increase fuel efficiency through operational changes, as well as structural changes to the boat. And if they made changes, what kind of returns they could find,” Behnken told the Sentinel.

Using technical advice from the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project under the U.S. Energy Department, ALFA has received technical assistance on the matter.

“We wanted to go the next step of looking at hybrid or zero-emission propulsion for the fleet, and that led us to the ETIPP award to work with the National Renewable Energy Labs to refine our ideas of what next steps should be,” Behnken said. “And we tested – with one boat this summer – electric fishing deck gear that was a way to reduce the electrical needs once we switch propulsion on that boat, and then this winter, we will be switching (Jordan’s) boat to actual hybrid propulsion.”

The diesel engines that have propelled fishing boats for a century operate most efficiently at specific speeds, she noted, but are less than ideal when trolling at low speeds.

Jordan told the Sentinel that fuel efficiency is already a priority in his commercial fishing.

“This year so far – and my wife just did the calculations – I burned 1,133 gallons (of diesel), which is about as fuel efficient as you can get in a troll operation,” Jordan said Monday. “A couple of things led to that: we had good salmon fishing close to town early in the season. And then we had chum show up in the middle of July. So I was targeting chum for the rest of the season. So that’s probably about as fuel efficient (as possible) for the kind of troll production I have.”

Jordan is not the first Sitkan to experiment with electric propulsion on a fishing vessel.

In 2020 Fabian Grutter converted his longliner, the F/V Sunbeam, to hybrid propulsion, but technical issues and a fire have delayed his project. Jordan and Grutter have discussed their projects with each other, Jordan said.

Acme Smoked Fish Corp., the largest smoked fish purveyor in the country, made its grants as part of its Seafood Industry Climate Award this month. The other recipients are the Aroostook Band of Mi’kmacs and Luke’s Seafood, both in Maine.

“Acme’s awards program looks to support innovation that will mitigate the impacts of climate change, while featuring the work of under-represented groups. In addition to funding, award recipients will have opportunities to work with leaders at Acme Smoked Fish Corp,” Acme says on the website.

In Sitka, Behnken explained to the Sentinel the challenges of the project.

“The engines that are in most of our fleet operate inefficiently at very low speeds, and inefficiently also at very high speeds,” she said. “And somewhere in between, we hit a sort of peak efficiency. So at low speeds – which is what we’re operating at most days – because when we’re trolling or hauling longline gear or running a gill net or seining, you’re mostly idling your engine. And they’re super inefficient at those low speeds. Likewise, when you’re running hard, you’re burning more fuel.”

Because of this, Behnken says the goal is to power Jordan’s boat electrically when he’s trolling, then swap over to the diesel when moving to and from the fishing grounds. The diesel main can charge the battery bank, too. 

“With a low-idle operation system, there’s a lot of fuel savings. So electric engines, electric motors while you’re trolling, while you’re longlining, while you are gillnetting really can save a lot of fuel, and then switching to your diesel engine when you need to charge,” she said.

In Jordan’s case, Behnken estimated that he could cut his fuel consumption by as much as 80 percent by installing a hybrid propulsion system. This reduction is possible in large part, she added, because Jordan doesn’t make long, multi-day fishing trips. Instead, each night he returns to town, where he can recharge batteries at the dock instead of burning diesel to charge at sea.

“Eric’s operation is well suited to hybrid(ization) where you have a clean energy alternative at the dock when you come into town,” she said.

But there’s a hangup – the batteries and propulsion unit cost $94,000 before installation costs are added on.

“That’s where we’ve been stuck, it’s just so expensive to do some of these first conversions. We’re looking at full conversion for the longer term, going to ammonia or hydrogen or fuel cells for the longer term. Carbon-zero sort of boats,” Behnken said.

Jordan highlighted the cost of the conversion, too, and was thankful for Behnken’s ability to secure funds.

“The honest truth is that it isn’t cost efficient without some kind of grants or funding from various sources, which Linda is just brilliant about finding,” Jordan said. “So right now, both her and her husband and I are looking at converting to some kind of hybrid diesel-electric.”

All told, he said, he expects the project to cost about $150,000 when the cost of installation is factored in. His troller, the F/V I Gotta, is valued at about $150,000.

While he doesn’t expect the project to pay for itself, Jordan thinks hybrid propulsion will save a significant amount of fuel.

“I’m looking to save about half or more… depending on where I fish and how far I go. But if I fish like I did this summer, they estimate that I could save as much as 80 percent of my diesel, which would be close to eight or nine hundred gallons.”

A gallon of diesel emits 22.46 pounds of carbon dioxide when burned, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says on their website. Citing the city’s Climate Action Task Force, Behnken said marine fuel use accounts for about 40 percent of Sitka’s carbon emissions.