In spite of wild weather and poor working conditions, Samherji’s four fresher trawlers have landed more fish for the first two months of 2020 than they did in the same period last year, between them catching 876 tonnes of cod more than at this time in 2019.
Fresher trawlers Björgúlfur EA-312, Björg EA-7, Kaldbakur EA-1 and Björgvin EA -311 have between them landed 4924 tonnes, an overall increase of 82 tonnes over their combined landings in January and February last year.
The proportion of cod is significantly up, with 4012 tonnes of cod landed compared to 3136 tonnes last year while there has been less of other species . According to the company, the fleet having to constantly avoid heavy weather means lower catches of haddock, saithe, golden redfish and deep redfish.
‘I reckon things have gone pretty well considering conditions in general,’ said Björgúlfur’s skipper Kristján Salmannsson.
‘The weather hasn’t sapped the crew’s energy. We’re used to working through bad weather, but this has been an unusually tough spell of bad weather. It’s been blowing practically non-stop since December. These rough conditions explain smaller catches of other species as we have been concentrating on areas where we are able to work,’ he said.
