Environmentally there will be substantial advantages with reduced direct impact on the seabed. The Poseidon doors will have substantial impact on bottom trawling as the trawl doors can for instant be controlled to be 10 or 20 metres above the seabed while the bridles and the bottom trawl is towed on the bottom.
The specific objective of the Remote Control Device Phase 1 was a feasibility study in order to design an adequate market penetration strategy. The study has unfolded the two target markets: fish trawling and seismic survey. Specific activities have been carried out in the study: defining the possible markets, the market sizes and segments, describing the competitive landscape, determine the specific target segments, their needs and decision criteria, determine the pricing and marketing strategies, and determine the business potential and the resources needed to exploit this. The main results are
• It is expected that various governments and institutions as well as NGO’s will have great interest in Poseidon as it can bring interesting solutions to the challenge of environmental protection
• Both customer segments are looking for improved performance in operation and possible ways to reduce costs - and the Poseidon innovation is able to fulfil this
• The patented Poseidon innovation does not have a critical competitor as technology offering the same advantageous performance has not been developed
• The European market will be the primary market for the launch, followed by Russia (west and east), North America and Asia (mainly China)
• The key customers are pelagic vessels, large bottom trawlers (> 24 mtr) and seismic survey vessels
• The market launch is foreseen to be in 2017-18
• Through the Poseidon project Polar can achieve a significant and leading market position
• The Poseidon project will have great impact on Polar revenues, earnings and employment.
