HB Grandi’s pelagic vessels did well on herring last weekend. Ingunn AK and Lundey NS were pair trawling ESE of Hornafjördur, while Faxi RE arrived on fishing ground and took Ingunn’s place opposite Lundey. Ingunn took a haul alone to end the trip before steaming in to discharge with less than 100 tonnes short of a full load on board. This morning Lundey and Faxi took a 260 tonne haul that was pumped into Lundey’s tanks.
Pelagic operations manager Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson says he is satisfied with results on herring so far now that there have been three landings in Vopnafjördur since early last week. Ingunn landed 1725 tonnes, Lundey landed 1250 tonnes and Faxi landed 1170 tonnes. Catches to date this season have come to a total of 11,500 tonnes since the fishery began at the end of May.
‘We have done everything we can with each landing to produce as much as possible for human consumption, but the problem is that the herring have been feeding these last few weeks and become more fatter, so the meat of the fillets is looser than it would be normally. This makes the herring more difficult to process. At the same time, the fish oil percentage from meal production has increased significantly,’ says Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson, and adds that there have been trials in processing mackerel bycatches for human consumption but the results have not yet been good enough.
‘We need to adjust the filleting machines and add additional equipment to make mackerel production a realistic option,’ says Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson.
