Iceland’s early winter herring season is under way, with pelagic vessels fishing on Icelandic summer-spawning herring off the west coast.
A small group of pelagic vessels had been searching for a while off western Iceland for signs of herring, but their search had been interrupted by bouts of bad weather, and some even abandoned the search to head eastwards for a trip on blue whiting, before resuming the search for herring.
The herring were finally found deep west of the Reykjanes Peninsula, although the fishing has yet to make real progress.
According to Hálfdan Hálfdanarson,skipper of Síldarvinnslan’s pelagic vessel Börkur, there are no large amounts of herring, although there are occasional good hauls.
‘Most hauls are small and our best one in this trip was less than a hundred tonnes,’ he said as Börkur was landing its 300 tonne trip to the Síldarvinnslan factory in Neskaupstaður. ‘All we can do is keep searching. Remember that fishing was patchy to begin with last year before it improved and I’m sure it’ll come,’ he said.
Albert Sveinsson on HB Grandi’s Víkingur said that the herring appear to be dispersed over a wide area, but are in good condition and have an average weight of around 300 grammes.
‘It hasn’t been easy to find them this time. We sailed in the middle of October, as did Venus, to look for herring and there was nothing to be seen off the west coast. We did one blue whiting trip and then went back to the west coast. That time there was a storm blowing and couldn’t see much, and before long we were back in Reykjavík. We stayed there until there were reports of herring, so we sailed and had our first haul on Saturday,’ he said, adding there are now four boats fishing for herring there.
He commented that it is not easy to estimate just how much herring there is west of Iceland.
‘The marks weren’t strong and the herring appear to be dispersed over a very wide area. It seems to be the same situation everywhere. Fishing is slowest around the middle of the day and is at its best in the morning and late in the afternoon,’ Albert Sveinsson said.
