Factory trawler Örfirisey, operated by Icelandic fishing company Brim, is currently in its second to last trip, as new tonnage is about to join the company’s fleet.
At the end of its present trip, Örfirisey has a visit to the slipway booked, after which is it is expected to start its final trip for Brim around the middle of August.
Brim has acquired Greenlandic trawler Tuukkaq, for former Tuugaalik, from Tuukkaq Trawl, a Royal Greenland partner company. Built at Myklebust Mek. Verksted in Norway in 2001, this 66.40 metre LOA, 14.60 metre breadth trawler is to be renamed Therney RE-3. The sale of Tuukkaq has been handled by Atlantic Shipping and the vessel has been delivered to its new owners.
Unlike Örfirisey, which is a filleter, Tuukkaq is outfitted as for wholefreezing and is expected to be deployed primarily on species such as Greenland halibut, silver smelt and redfish.
Currently fishing off the west of Iceland, Örfirisey made a half-landing last week of production from a green weight of around 600 tonnes of fish caught mainly on south-western grounds, before heading for the Westfjords.
‘There’s some excellent fishing here, but the catch is very mixed. There’s a huge amount of golden redfish getting in our way and there’s haddock wherever we look,’ said skipper Arnar Haukur Ævarsson.
‘We’ve been looking for saithe, as so often. There wasn’t a lot to be seen, but the redfish catch was fine. There was some haddock to be seen on the Mountains, where we spent most of our time. Then we went north the the Látragrunnur and Flugbraut grounds and had some heavy fishing on clean haddock. At its height, the catch rate hit a tonne per minute, and production capacity limited what we could allow ourselves to catch.’
He commented that after the half-landing, the decision was made to start fishing on the Flugbraut grounds.
‘The fishing for haddock hadn’t slowed down. Then we worked out way along the shallow bank and north to the Hali grounds. There’s been a slight showing of saithe, but here it’s primarily haddock and redfish that predominate.’
Once Örfirisey has completed its last trip and Therney takes its place in the company fleet, some changes will take place – as wholefreezing requires a smaller crew than filleting at sea.
Skipper Arnar Haukur Ævarsson moves across to skipper Vigri opposite Árni Gunnólfsson. Eythór Atli Scott, who has shared the wheelhouse on board Vigri, takes over Sólborg, which Brim acquired in the autumn of last year
