HB Grandi’s three pelagic vessels have been fishing hard on blue whiting. 21,400 tonnes had already been landed, but with the last haul of the trip by Lundey NS this afternoon, the company’s total for the year can be estimated at 22,600 tonnes.
‘We have 1600 tonnes of this year’s blue whiting quota left but we can take 2000 tonnes from next year’s quota and intend to do that,’ said Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson, head of HB Grandi’s pelagic division.
He commented that fishing had been strong on blue whiting but dropped off yesterday. He reckons that this is likely to be temporary, as vessels are still fishing well in UK waters and the blue whiting is migrating northwards towards the Faroese EEZ where Icelandic vessels have access to the fishery.
Faxi RE docked in Vopnafjördur on Saturday with 1165 tonnes of blue whiting on board and discharging was complete yesterday. Faxi is now on its way back to fishing grounds and is expected to be ready to start fishing tonight. Ingunn AK arrived at Fuglafjördur in the Faroe Islands yesterday with 1720 tonnes and was expected back on fishing grounds today. For both Faxi and Ingunn, this will be their last trips on blue whiting.
According to Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson, they are working on what the pelagic vessels will be fishing on next, which is most likely to be Atlanto-Scandian herring when that season gets under way in June.
