The migration of Icelandic summer-spawning herring has yet to be properly located, in spite of the pelagic fleet searching for fish over a wide area west of Iceland.
‘Things are slow. We’ve been searching, but still haven’t yet found the main migration. The herring we have caught so far has been exceptionally large, top quality fish with an average weight of 320-340 grammes,’ said Guðlaugur Jónsson, skipper of HB Grandi’s pelagic vessel Venus, now steaming to Vopnafjörður with 940 tonnes of herring on board.
The catch was taken in seven hauls deep west of the Reykjanes peninsula. Guðlaugur Jónsson expects to dock in Vopnafjörður tonight.
One of the most experienced pelagic skippers in Iceland, he said that so far the Icelandic summer-spawning herring have not showed up in significant amounts.
‘There was a patch of good fishing the night before last that continued into the morning and the boats were getting 150 to 300 tonne shots. Then it was as if the herring just vanished and haven’t been found in any amounts in spite of a search over a wide area,’ he said, commenting that the last time the herring migrated into Breiðafjörður was three years ago. At that time locating the herring marks was much easier and now the fish is dispersed in deep water off the west coast.
This was Venus’s second herring trip this autumn, and the first ended with a 1050 tonne landing. In addition to Venus, Víkingur is also supplying the pelagic processing plant with raw material, landing 800 tonnes at Vopnafjörður yesterday.
