Capelin were landed yesterday at Neskaupstaður in eastern Iceland by two Norwegian pelagic vessels.
Gardar (the former Icelandic Beitir) landed 300 tonnes and Kings Bay landed 600 tonnes. According to Síldarvinnslan which took delivery of the two landings, the fish were caught 30 nautical miles north-east of Langanes and as there was a high proportion of feed in the fish, only a small amount of Kings Bay’s landing was suitable for production for human consumption.
Gardar’s skipper Ole Toft said that they had left Bergen for fishing grounds east of Iceland on the 31st of January, but poor weather stopped them fishing until Saturday.
‘We had 300 tonnes and then steamed to Neskaupstaður,’ he said, commenting that the capelin are large, good quality fish, but the feed in them brings the price down as their catch was landed for meal production instead of freezing.
‘Gardar can catch 620 tonnes of capelin in Iceland and we have to catch in in the purse seine. We’re not allowed to trawl for it,’ he said, adding that as the former Beitir, Gardar is a familiar sight in Neskaupstaður, while the old Gardar is now Polar Amaroq, also a regular caller in the port.
‘We’ll wait here for a few days and then hope to find capelin that are free of feed that are suitable for frozen production, for which we get a good price,’ Ole Toft said.
The Icelandic fleet remains tied up due to the ongoing seamen’s strike, so any landings of capelin now come only from the Norwegian, Faroese and Greenlandic vessels licensed to catch capelin their quota in Icelandic waters.
