Faxi RE and Lundey NS are on their way in to land 3000 tonnes of blue whiting caught south of the Faroese zone over the last few days. Fishing was very slow for several days after Easter, but has been gradually improving and the blue whiting now appear to be migrating increasingly towards the Faroese EEZ. Ingunn AK is still on the fishing grounds and had 1400 tonnes on board this morning.
‘We expect to be in Vopnafjördur early in the morning after leaving the fishing grounds at 2000 yesterday – it’s a 400 mile trip,’ said Faxi’s skipper Albert Sveinsson, who added that they had been fishing just north of the Scottish limits.
‘We had a good 700 tonne haul yesterday, which brought our total up to 1550 tonnes. It’s clear that the blue whiting are starting to make their way northwards. The fishing has been very good in Scottish waters, but the fishing dropped off there for the Faroese boats and they have now shifted northwards to be closer to where we have been. It gets a bit tight on the fishing grounds at this time of year. When we arrived here there was one Russian trawler fishing. Now there are between 20 and 30 Russians, and eight Icelandic vessels were there yesterday. Then there’s a big group coming up from the Scottish EEZ, so there’s a quite a fleet fishing here now,’ Albert Sveinsson said.
