With current good fishing for blue whiting in the grey zone at the south of the Faroese EEZ, Eskja’s pelagic vessels have been doing well with their Egersund Ísland trawl gear.
Guðrún Thorkelsdóttir was supplied with a new 1920 metre trawl before the start of the season, while Jón Kjartansson and Aðalsteinn Jónsson have new 2016 metre gear.
According to Stefán B Ingvarsson at Egersund Ísland, the trawls have performed exceptionally well, and are lighter to tow than the larger trawls they were all working during the previous season.
Guðrún Thorkelsdóttir’s skipper Bjarni Már Hafsteinsson reported that although the gear is smaller, fishing has been very good.
‘The main difference between these and the older gear is that the mesh size is stepped, and they are lighter,’ said Egersund Ísland’s managing director Stefán B. Ingvarsson.
‘There has been a lot of interest from skippers at other companies and we hope we’ll be able to rig more trawls.’
He added that this trawl gear has been produced at the net loft in Eskifjörður, and it’s positive for the local employment situation that this work remains in the community.
The net loft is currently preparing light blue whiting codends. These are a new design, with streamlined cover netting that makes them economic to tow.
Venus is due to take delivery of a light codend and two more codends now in production are for Eskja’s pelagic vessels.
He commented that they are busy at the moment, as in addition to the codends, staff are working with washing and dyeing aquaculture cages, ship services and associated work, plus there is work waiting to be done on capelin purse seines, salmon cages and more.
Eskja’s pelagic vessel Guðrún Thorkelsdóttir tied up by the Egersund Ísland net loft in Eskifjörður. Image: Eskja
