As the Icelandic fleet experiences its first big capelin season for many years, there has been one record landing after another, although there are only a handful of pelagic vessels have the capacity to do this, and the margins are getting narrower.
Last week it was Samherji’s pelagic vessel Vilhelm Thorsteinsson that has the honour of the largest landing to date with 3448 tonnes discharged in Fuglafjørður in the Faroe Islands last week, beating the 3409 tonne record set by sister vessel Börkur only days before.
According to skipper Guðmundur Th. Jónsson, it took twenty hours to pump Vilhelm Thorsteinsson’s catch ashore, and the buyer was satisfied with both the quality and the oil content of the capelin. The catch was pumped direct to production, and not into holding tanks as is done at the Icelandic plants.
‘The situation is that the fishmeal plants in Iceland aren’t able to keep up when fishing is good, and that’s why we set course for the Faroes. It’s a three hundred nautical mile steam from fishing grounds east of Langanes,’ he said.
‘We filled up in seven hauls, of which the largest was 600 tonnes, and for that one we only towed for an hour and a half. Apart from that one, we were mostly towing for six to eight hours. At one point we had to dodge for twenty-four hours due to a storm, but everything went very well.’
He commented that there’s no competition as such taking place for the top spot.
‘These are simply very good, powerful vessels with plenty of carrying capacity. The most important factor is to land good quality raw material, and for that these vessels are well equipped in every way. The average temperature of the catch as it was pumped ashore was 2.1°C,’ he said.
‘Fishing has been good and we hope it stays that way. We expect the fishing grounds will be busy, as the Norwegian fleet is now there as well,’ Guðmundur Th. Jónsson said, commenting that the new vessel has performed well.
‘It’s a pleasure to steam in with a full payload,’ he said.
