Changes are taking place to both demersal and pelagic fishing capacity within fishing companies that are part of Icelandic fishing and processing group Síldarvinnslan.
Subsidiary company Bergur ehf, based in the Westman Islands, has contracted to sell 35.38 metre, 1300hp trawler Bergur VE-44 to Grindavík fishing company Vísir. Bergur was built at Karstensen in Denmark in 1998, and is to be replaced with the purchase of Bergey VE-144, one of the series of trawlers built for Icelandic owners at Vard in 2019, from sister company Bergur-Huginn ehf.
According to Síldarvinnslan, these changes are a response to the groundfish quotas available to the company, which are expected to be reduced by 1500 tonnes for the 2021-22 quota year, which opens on the 1st September.
Another Síldarvinnslan subsidiary, Runólfur Hallfreðsson ehf, has contracted to sell pelagic vessel Bjarni Ólafsson AK-70 to an overseas buyer, subject to terms and conditions that are expected to be clarified in the coming weeks.
If the sale goes ahead, Bjarni Ólafsson will be replaced by the Turkish-built former Börkur, which was replaced by a new pelagic vessel delivered by Karstensen earlier this year.
The former Börkur will then take the name and crew of the current Bjarni Ólafsson.
