It’s always a milestone when the first capelin purse seine of the season is spooled on board.
Greenlandic pelagic vessel Polar Amaroq has already delivered the first capelin of the season, caught in a pelagic trawl east of Iceland, and took the opportunity after landing to call at the Hampiðjan net loft in Neskaupstaður to spool both of its purse seines on board.
These are the conventional shallow purse seine used through most of the season, plus a deeper set of gear used when the conditions call for it. The deep seine has been overhauled by the Hampiðjan team in Neskaupstaður, with some adjustments made to fine-tune its performance.
Although the allocated quota isn’t huge, there’s considerable expectation that the capelin survey currently in progress could result in figures good enough to justify an increase in this season’s quota.
Polar Amaroq’s skipper Geir Zoëga commented that they won’t be fishing with the purse seines right away, but are ready to go when the time comes.
