Pelagic vessel Börkur has been alongside at Neskaupstaður to offload 1092 tonnes of herring – caught in a single tow off the east of Iceland.
According to skipper Hjörvar Hjálmarsson, this is one of the largest single hauls recorded.
‘I haven’t heard of many bigger ones,’ he said, adding that a few years ago Beitir took a single shot that turned out to be 1322 tonnes.
Börkur’s 1092-tonne haul was the result of towing for just 50 minutes.
‘When we sailed, we heard that the fleet was fishing on marks that looked thick on the sounder, but didn’t yield a lot. We went further off, had one tow, and the herring turned out to be much more dense,’ he said.
‘The fact is that this was far too big a haul. There are some high tensions and it puts too much pressure on everything, winches, wires and the codend. It would have been better in every way to have had this amount of fish in two or three hauls. We have the luxury of having a well-equipped vessel, and that makes all the difference.’
He commented that the catch in this tow was 30% Icelandic summer-spawning herring, which are heavy as they have a low fat content after spawning.
‘If this had been all fatter Atlanto-Scandian herring, then it would have been easier. But it all worked out. This herring season is going well and there’s a lot of herring here off the east coast. We’ve been taking short tows and fishing well,’ Hjörvar Hjálmarsson said.
