The Icelandic fleet has already begun fishing for mackerel in international waters. After searching for a while the pelagic vessels are at work in the Banana Loophole, with the first catches by Brim’s vessels already on the way to be landed and others are on the way to the same grounds.
The Síldarvinnslan fleet sailed at the weekend, having postponed their intended departure last week. Börkur, Barði and Beitir are expected to be in international waters by now and will be operating with Samherji vessels Vilhelm Thorsteinsson and Margrét as they have done in previous years, filling one vessel’s tanks at a time and taking turns to steam for home. The crews of all these pelagic vessels were polled in advance about participating in this sharing scheme, and the vote was overwhelmingly in favour.
According to Síldarvinnslan fleet manager Grétar Arnar Sigfinnsson, there are few reports so far of catch rates, and he commented that last year’s fishery also got off to a slow start.
The processing plant in Neskaupstaður is ready for mackerel landings and the primary concern is a flow of landings to maintain steady production.
‘We’re optimistic, I think,’ said Börkur’s skipper Hálfdan Hálfdanarson.
‘Three Brim pelagic vessels started searching inside the EEZ and now they are in the Banana Loophole. There was fishing there at the end of June last year. The question is whether the mackerel migrate later into the Icelandic EEZ as the fishery was there in the later part of last summer. But mackerel are unpredictable and there’s no telling what they might do. The fact is that the fish simply seek out where the feed is. If there isn’t enough for them in the Loophole, they’ll move into the EEZ.’
