Icelandic pelagic vessels have landed 65% of their blue whiting quota this year despite the long trips to fishing grounds
The Icelandic pelagic fleet have landed around 180,000 tonnes of blue whiting so far this fishing year, leaving approximately 95,000 tons left of the issued quota, or almost 35% to catch, according to the website of the Icelandic Fisheries Agency.
Beitir NK has landed the largest blue whiting catch with 15,729 tonnes registered. Börkur NK follows with 14,321 tonnes and then Venus NS with 14,165 tonnes. Aðalsteinn Jónsson SU landed the fourth largest catch, 14,119 tonnes, and Jón Kjartansson SU the fifth largest catch, 12,201 tonnes.
Most of the fleet are operating 300 to 350 miles south east off Iceland, meaning a long steam out to the grounds, but the fishing is still good as far as 200 miles reports Icelandic news publisher mbl.is.
Hoffell SU landed at the weekend with 2,250 tonnes of blue whiting onboard, fished about 330 miles from Fáskrúdsfjörður on the east coast, where the LVF fish processing plant is located.
At the Sildarvinnslan fishmeal plants in Neskaupstaður and on Seyðisfjörður, also on the east coast, it’s been reported they’ve been processing blue whiting ‘vigorously’ recently and the processing has been going well. The boats are bringing the raw material to shore well-cooled which means quality flour is bring produced from the blue whiting, but it yields little fish oil as the fish is thin at this time of the year after travelling north.
Large landings of between 1,200 tonnes and 3,200 tonnes have been reported with the 89-metre Vilhelm Þorsteinsson EA making the largest landing at the plant in Neskaupstaður.