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The Norwegian sandeel season has had a record breaking week.
The Norwegian sandeel season continues with Norges Sildesalgslag reporting a record-breaking 37,300 tonnes landed from last week fisheries.
The 37,300 tonnes of sandeel is the largest quantity recorded in the organisation’s registration journals since today’s computer system was introduced in 2002.
At the start of the week the fishing was somewhat varied, but from Thursday the fleet was mainly concentrating their fishing efforts at the Klondyke which was producing good fishing. The highest daily quantity was caught on Saturday with 9,300 tonnes from 6 boats, while the lowest was on Tuesday with only three catches of a total of almost 1,900 tonnes.
Over the week more than 29,000 tonnes was taken from the waters at Klondyke. In previous weeks, fishing has been carried out on several grounds, between Inner Shoal, the West Bank and the Outer Shoal. Up until Sunday 24 May, fishing had been recorded as poor on the Klondyke. Last year the Klondyke was where the main fishing took place.
On Thursday 28 May, the ‘Gerda Marie’ reported a total of 2,350 tonnes for the day’s fishing. With the fishing this good there is approximately 92,000 tonnes out of this year’s 250,000 tonne quota.
Nearly all of last week’s catch has been delivered to Norwegian fish meal producers except for four catches going to foreign ports. Last week’s catches resulted in a backlog at processing plants meaning some boats had to wait over the weekend to unload.
Not alone is the quantity of the sandeel good but the quality of the fish is being recorded as top class, containing plenty of oil which is good processing.
With three weeks left and if the fishing remains the same as last week, the Norwegian sandeel fleet look set to be on target to catch the total allocated of 250,000 tonnes by the close of the season.
Source: Norges Sildeslagslag
