For Chief Engineer, Ronald Cottee, Harvest Krotoa provides a challenging working environment. The vessel is driven by a powerful 3 000 HP Wärtsila engine and carries a complex array of winches used to deploy and retrieve its twin trawl nets.
Ronald and his colleagues, Second Engineer Oscar Seide and engine room assistants Tembekile Mnyaka and Mwuzi Mgiwu, are responsible for operating and maintaining all the machinery on the Harvest Krotoa. The engine room is manned day and night and the engineering team must work hard to ensure that the trawl operation is never impeded or delayed by faulty equipment.
Ronald comes from a fishing family and embarked on a career as a marine engineer at the age of 20.
“I started working as an engineering cadet right after school,” he says. “In the beginning it was tough, but today the fishermen enjoy much more freedom.”
After seven years of training and working at sea, Ronald achieved his Chief Engineer’s ticket and a year later he got his first appointment as a Chief Engineer working aboard a fishing trawler.
Over the course of his 38-year career, Ronald has worked for three fishing companies, all of which operate trawlers in the deep-sea trawl fishery for hake. He has worked for Sea Harvest for 15 years.