Fresher trawler Gullver, owned by Síldarvinnslan and operating from Seyðisfjörður in the east of Iceland, has broken two records only a week apart, first hitting 5000 tonnes and then breaking the ISK one billion catch value barrier.
Gullver landed 102 tonnes of fish in Seyðisfjörður last week, taking it to the 5000 tonne mark for the present (1st Sept 2017-31st August 2018) quota year. This is the highest tonnage Gullver has delivered in the twenty years since it was delivered new in 1998, and its previous catch record was 4400 tonnes landed in 2004.
A few days later and Gullver was back at the quayside, this time with 106 tonnes on board, and this trip was enough to push the trawler’s catch values for the year past the ISK one billion (€8.08 million) mark for the first time.
According to operating company Síldarvinnslan, Gullver has been very successful, and is currently skippered by Thórhallur Jónsson and Rúnar L Gunnarsson, who took over from Jónas Jónsson four months into the quota year.
‘The fact is that although this is an old ship, it’s an unbelievably good one. It has always fished well and is a fine sea boat,’ skipper Thórhallur Jónsson said. ‘We can attribute this success to the fishing gear and the great crew we have on board. In the last few years we’ve also been fairly free to fish, and it hasn’t always been like that.’
Co-skipper Rúnar L. Gunnarsson agreed, saying that Gullver and its crew have done well recently.
‘Of course the main reason is that we have had enough quota and the ship is efficiently run,’ he said. ‘Most of the year we have been on our usual fishing grounds off the south-east coast, and we also had four trips on the Selvógur Bank. Everyone onboard is pleased with these results,’ he said.
