Fishing for deep sea ocean perch on the Reykjanes Ridge has been in progress for a while now and catch rates have been fairly low, according to HB Grandi fleet manager Rúnar Thór Stefánsson. The company has four ships fishing on the Ridge, of the approximately 40 trawlers from many nations fishing there.´
‘It has been quiet. Catches have been from 1 to 1.5 tonnes per towing hour, which isn’t a lot,’ he says, commenting that the Icelandic trawlers are all fishing inside or on the 200 mile limit while the foreign vessels do a ‘line dance’ along the EEZ limit.
The HB Grandi trawlers fishing on redfish are Helga María AK, Venus HF, Þerney RE and Örfirisey RE. Altogether there are eleven Icelandic trawlers fishing for redfish.