Pelagic vessel Bjarni Ólafsson docked this week in Neskaupstaður after its third blue whiting trip in a row, this time landing 1835 tonnes t the Síldarvinnslan factory.
´This trip went very well and we had this fish around 60 nautical from Norðfjörður. It’s not far, so it could hardly be more convenient,’ said skipper Runólfur Runólfsson.
Bjarni Ólafsson’s 1835 tonnes was take in five hauls, from 560 down to 200 tones, with fishing only during daylight.
‘We shot away at six-thirty in the morning and towed for ten and a half hours. During the night way lay to, as that’s when the fish lift higher in the water and disperse,’ he said.
‘This is large, excellent quality blue whiting. Now there are more pelagic vessels on the grounds. Víkingur and Venus are starting on blue whiting, and Börkur and Beitir fishing for blue whiting in between herring trips. It’s a pleasure to be able to fish for blue whiting in our own waters again, as the last time we were able to do that in any volume was the summer of 2018.’
Börkur landed 630 tonnes of herring and 250 tonnes of blue whiting in Neskaupstaður this week, followed by Beitir 1000 tonnes of herring.
Börkur’s skipper Hjörvar Hjálmarsson said that they had taken one blue whiting tow with their herring gear during the trip.
‘This is exceptionally good quality blue whiting there. We haven’t seen such large blue whiting for many years.’
