Fishing has been good for the Icelandic fleet fishing for blue whiting, and pelagic vessels Jón Kjartansson and Aðalsteinn Jónsson both started this year’s fishing with new trawl gear from Egersund Ísland, produced in Eskifjörður.
Both opted for a 2016m trawl, the same design as was supplied to Hákon for the last season, and which has done its work well both on board Hákon and the two Eskifjörður pelagic catchers. Catch rates have been good, and the 2016 trawls are lighter to tow than the gear these trawlers had previously been using.
According to Jón Kjartansson’s mate Ragnar Eðvarðsson, the gear has performed well, burning less fuel that before.
Egersund Ísland’s net loft in Eskifjörður is busy with production of its high-strength codends. These weigh around seven tonnes, are 87 metres long and are made from high-quality European-produced nylon netting.
According to the company, these codends have proved highly popular and are used by most of the Icelandic and Norwegian pelagic fleet.
Alongside work on trawl gear and codends that was the focus through November and December, Egersund Ísland, the preceding months were largely devoted to maintaining and repairing gear for the salmon farming industry.
On the company’s jobs list are salmon cages, trawl and codend production, and supplying services to the fleet.
Stefán B. Ingvarsson commented that there are still hopes that there could be a capelin season this year.
‘In a normal year this would have had more of an effect on our activity,’ he said.
‘But we have been kept busy working with salmon industry gear and although a capelin season would be very welcome bonus and we haven’t lost hope yet.’
