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The Norwegian blue whiting season continues despite coronavirus pandemic
Norges Sildesalgslag (Norwegian Fishermen’s Sales Organisation for Pelagic Fish) has reported that their blue whiting fishery and the plant operations are running as normal.
The organisation has revealed that a total of 48.6 tonne of blue whiting was registered in their pelagic vessels catch journal this week, with the fishery being good, even though the fishery around St. Kilda has been a bit “slower” than expected.
38.6 tonne has been caught in the area from the Porcupine Bank and further north, 9.7 tonne has been caught at North 56° and 30 minutes, and further north towards St.Kilda.
The Norges Sildesalgslag website says “The weather broke North of the Porcupine Bank at the end of the week, and on Sunday the last vessel left the area. On Sunday we still got reports of poor weather and most of the vessels on the grounds are not fishing due to the wind. Currently, there’s seven vessels on the grounds and a similar amount approaching.”
They have reported that most of their trawlers have finished fishing because they have exhausted their quota but there are still 15-16 blue whiting trawlers that have quotas left to fish.
Norges Sildesalgslag continued by saying “The pandemic (COVID-19) has currently not affected the fishery, and both the vessels and the plants have taken their precautions. All plants, with one undecided, will run during Easter.”
They concluded by saying “Apart from the blue whiting fishery, there’s not a lot of activity, we only registered 60 tonne of horse mackerel and 260 tonne of Norway Pout in the journal this week.”
Source: Norges Sildesalgslag
