The Icelandic fleet’s herring fishery has begun, with pelagic vessel Barði landing 560 tonnes of Atlanto-Scandian herring to Síldarvinnslan’s Neskaupstaður processing plant at the weekend.
Accordoing to skipper Thorkell Pétursson, Barði sailed on Tuesday last week, and he had intended to head for international waters to continue hunting for mackerel.
‘But reports weren’t encouraging, so instead the decision was taken to see what herring we could find. We headed west of Malrakkaslétta and searched to the east from there. As we approached the Bakkaflói Deeps we started to see some fine herring marks. Not big marks, but tight,’ he said, and commented that there were two hauls for this trip.
‘The first was three and a half hours and we hauled 330 tonnes. The second tow was two hours for 230 tonnes. This is fine herring, with a 370-380 gramme average weight. There’s very little feed in the fish, so this should be good raw material for production.’
Barði docked with its payload of herring on Saturday morning, but had to wait to start discharging until the mackerel landed by Vilhelm Thorsteinsson had all been processed.
