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Atlanto-Scandian Herring 2020 season ends
Brims hf., fishing vessels Venus NS and Víkingur AK, finished the season Atlanto-Scandian Herring 2020 season this weekend and are now in Sundahöfn.
Ingimundur Ingimundarson, managing director of pelagic vessels at Brim, says that the season has gone extremely well.
Yesterday, about 73,000 tonnes ofAtlanto-Scandian herring had been landed, but the total quota of Icelandic vessels this year was set at over 91,000 tonnes.
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“It really was impossible to think of a better way to do this,” says Ingimundur. “We landed the first herring on September 11, after the mackerel season, and three weeks later, eleven thousand tonnes had been landed, which was the quota for the vessels. At its best, they were about three hours from the fishing grounds east of the country to the pier in Vopnafjörður and the raw material was very good, especially at the beginning of the season. The vessels usually had 1,000-1,100 tonnes and it almost always took them less than a day on the fishing grounds to reach the target. “
When asked, Ingimundur says that the price for the herring was reasonable considering the conditions and slightly better than last year, when it was low. By far the most herring has been frozen for markets in eastern Europe, except for some salting at the capelin processing plant in Fáskrúðsfjörður.
Venus’s skipper Bergur Einarsson said that the Atlanto-Scandian herring season had been short and sharp.
‘Fishing went very well and there was a lot of herring there. Fishing grounds were no more than 60 to 80 nautical miles from Vopnafjörður. The weather was fine and the herring in top condition, and we can say that production ashore dictated how quickly we fished. We had three trips and the last of these was for 1500 tonnes taken in four short tows. This was good quality herring, averaging 380 to 420 grammes,’ he said.
The next step for the pelagic vessels is uncertain. Any fishing for Icelandic summer-spawning herring is unlikely to start until November.
‘I don’t know what’s next, but blue whiting would be an option,’ Bergur Einarsson said.
When Brims’ vessels go fishing for Icelandic summer spawning herring from the beginning of next month the plan is to catch around 1,500 tonnes, but the quota is not large, in addition to which care will be taken to have some Icelandic herring left over for the by-catch of mackerel fishing next summer.
Following this project, the policy will be to fish for blue whiting in Faroese jurisdiction. One Icelandic ship, Bjarni Ólafsson AK, has recently been on blue whiting east of the country and landed 1,770 tonnes.
The Síldarvinnslan website talked to Captain Runólf Runólfsson about the blue whiting fishery. “It has gone relatively well. It is a large blue whiting, but in this trip the catch was mixed with herring. We caught a lot of herring in one hole. The fishing took place out of Héraðsflói and in the depths of Seyðisfjörður all the way to the edge. There were 56 miles in Norðfjarðarhorn when we stopped fishing. The catch was obtained in seven holes. The largest haul yielded about 300 tonnes and the smallest about 200. The blue whiting is barely visible, it can only be seen as very faint dust. It is only fished during the day, but at night the fish spreads and goes up into the sea and then there is no point in dealing with it.
The blue whiting quota for the year is 247,000 tonnes and according to an overview on the Directorate of Fisheries’ website, about 187,000 tonnes have been landed.
Source: Various
