Lundey NS docked in Akranes last night with between 1350 and 1400 tonnes of herring on board, caught in Breidafjördur over two days. This brings to an end HB Grandi’s 4500 tonne share of the 40,000 tonne quota on Icelandic summer-spawning herring that the Minister of Fisheries allocated earlier this month.
According to Lundey’s skipper Arnthór Hjörleifsson, they encountered similar conditions to those that crews of Ingunn AK and Faxi RE had to deal with before them, with a strong northerly offshore wind and the fish just off the shoreline, as well as the heavy currents in the vicinity of Stykkishólmur.
‘We shot twice, both times right outside Stykkishólmur. The first one was in front of the slipways and the second just off harbour entrance. We also had some fish that we pumped out of Börkur NK’s seine yesterday morning. They had an excellent shot inside Kidey island, where they had some shelter from the wind and that was probably the only place it was really possible to handle a purse seine just then,’ said Arnthór Hjörleifsson.
Lundey had also been taking part in a herring research operation in co-operation with the Marine Research Institute before heading for fishing grounds in Breidafjördur, but Arnthór Hjörleifsson said that nothing had been found during the research.
‘We steamed 500 nautical miles from Snæfellsnes south across Faxa Bay and finished up west of Eldey. Most of the searching was deep, but we had a good look at shallower grounds in Faxa Bay. It’s not a surprise that we didn’t see any herring, as based on what we’ve experienced in Breidafjördur, the herring seem to be keeping themselves close to the shore,’ said Arnthór Hjörleifsson.
