The Icelandic pelagic fleet has been fishing well on blue whiting since the beginning of April, and Síldarvinnslan has taken delivery of 25,000 tonnes since the season got underway.
According to Síldarvinnslan, the first landings took place in Seyðisfjörður on 12th April and in Neskaupstaður the following day. The factory in Seyðisfjörður has taken delivery of 11,800 tonnes and the Neskaupstaður has had 13,350 tonnes pumped ashore, bringing the company’s total so far to 25,150 tonnes.
Earlier this year there had also been landings of blue whiting caught west of Ireland.
Seyðisfjörður factory manager Gunnar Sverrisson commented that production is going smoothly and has been uninterrupted.
‘Sometimes we have slowed production down so that there are no breaks in processing,’ he said.
‘With blue whiting it’s essential that cooling the catch on board is done well. Blue whiting are delicate raw material and we don’t like to keep it for too long after landing as it spoils quickly. So it makes a difference when the fish are carefully chilled on board and processed right away,’ he said.
HB Grandi’s pelagic vessel Venus is now alongside at Vopnafjörður following its second trip in Faroese water – a second 2600 tonne trip on blue whiting and fishing has been good, according to skipper Róbert Axelsson
‘We were less than four days on the fishing grounds and tows are mostly from eight hours up to 10-12 hours. We have been getting 400 to 550 tonnes of blue whiting in each haul, and this trip was six tows,’ he said.
Now the blue whiting appear to be moving northwards and Róbert Axelsson said that while the fishing is as good as it is, nobody is searching for other fishing areas, while the blue whiting are also moving westwards, as they did last year.
