This year’s mackerel season has been different to previous years, and for east coast company Síldarvinnslan the season began with a landing on the 19th of July, and fishing has been patchy at intervals, with much of the activity in international waters.
The first landing of the year took place in July when Vilhelm Thorsteinsson docked with 500 tonnes of frozen production that was landed into Síldarvinnslan’s cold store, while the company’s own fishing activity got underway with Beitir landing its first trip on 1st August.
The season was later than in past years and more time and effort has gone into catching mackerel, in between periods of good fishing.
According to Vilhelm Thorsteinsson’s skipper Guðmundur Jónsson, the sea temperature at the start of the season was colder than in previous years.
Towards the end of the season, Börkur’s skipper Hjörvar Hjálmarsson commented that the mackerel were late as there had been less feed than in the last few years, and that the late arrival of spring along the mackerel’s migration route had been the behind this.
The mackerel season ended for Síldarvinnslan at the end of September. Beitir landed a total of 6644 tonnes, Börkur had 6134 tonnes and Bjarni Ólafsson’s catch was 3983 tonnes. In addition, Vilhelm Thorsteinsson landed a total of 4500 tonnes of frozen mackerel to Síldarvinnslan’s cold store and Hákon landed 3500 tonnes of seafrozen production.
