In brief, Beta for more than twenty-five years operated eight trawlers known as the Cuba Trawlers for wetfish catch in Faroe waters, with the exception of a very few North Sea trips. The harvesting effort was aimed at demersal fish of which saithe was the dominant species with a three-quarter share of the overall catch.
The trawlers started off using conventional trawling but after a few years switched to the pair trawling method.
Retaining the same eight vessels without replacement or renewal, harvesting operations were carried out in the same fishing grounds throughout the period.
All business documents including financial statements, manning lists, equipment purchase information, catch data, navigation logs, repairs, bunkering, provisioning and a number of other data have been kept on file, partly digitalised and used for various statistical purposes. The entire file collection could be used as a research base for those interested in looking in to the various aspects of the data—activities which could crete a research-oriented environment where people could gain new knowledge and insights through cooperative studies involving scientists, industry representatives, interest groups and others.
As a research base, the location in the fishing harbor of Runavík provides for easy access to the various integral elements of a vibrant business community.
The material appears to be unique in a number of ways, some of the characteristics being as follows:
- It is unusual that fishing operation documents are kept for such a long period;
- the vessels are sister ships i.e. of identical type, with similar quality, size etc.;
- the vessels have been active in the same kind of operation throughout the period;
- the trawling operations have been carried out within the same limited area;
- the vessels have remained under the same operator and ownership;
- harvesting records, fish species data and landings are reliable and verifiable;
- the vessels switched from single boat to pair trawling;
- the vessels have been fishing under quota-free regime;
- the vessels have been fishing under TAC (Total Allowable Catch) regulation;
- the vessels have been fishing under an effort-based i.e. days at sea system;
- a renewal of the fleet is in progress since late 2002; and
- future comparability of old and new vessels is plausible.