Síldarvinnslan’s pelagic vessel Beitir has broken a few records this week after docking at Neskaupstaður in eastern Iceland last night with 3000 tonnes of capelin on board.
According to Síldarvinnslan, this landing by Beitir (ex-Gitte Henning) is believed to be the largest ever single landing of capelin. Skipper Tómas Kárason commented while steaming home from fishing grounds south of Grindavík that on arrival at Neskaupstaður the catch would be sampled to check if the roe from it could be extracted.
‘We caught this fish in four shots off Grindavík and it took us thirteen hours to fill up,’ he said.
‘There is a great deal of capelin on the move and I have never seen capelin fishing like it. The capelin are also large and very good quality.’
The capelin roe season has already started and some processors are already producing and freezing capelin roe for the Japanese market.
On the other side of Iceland, roe production is already in full swing at HB Grandi’s Akranes processing plant, with a 2000 tonne landing by Venus earlier this week.
‘Venus caught this fish off Thorlákshöfn and sampling showed a roe content of 24%. The roe maturity was estimated at 78%, so we started the roe extraction last night for frozen production,’ said foreman Gunnar Hermannsson at HB Grandi’s processing plant, adding that the usual benchmark for roe production is a 23% roe content. Japanese buyers like to see an 80% or more maturity, although he commented that where buyers set the limit also depends on the supply and demand on the market.
Approximately half of the capelin can be expected to be roe-bearing fish suitable for roe extraction and freezing. Other fish are graded out and are sent for fishmeal and fish oil production, along with production waste from the extraction process. A staff of around 50 are working around the clock at HB Grandi’s Akranes plant while the season lasts.
