This summer’s mackerel season is underway with both of HB Grandi’s pelagic vessels on the fishing grounds already.
Víkingur sailed from Akranes on Monday night and is now fishing off the south coast. Venus docked yesterday afternoon after fishing south-west of the Westmann Islands. According to Albert Sveinsson, skipper of Víkingur, the season has got off to a leisurely start.
‘We’re now forty nautical miles south-east of Vík. There were already a few boats there on the mackerel when we arrived but things have been quiet so far. We took a short tow yesterday and had ten tonnes. We shot away this morning and now we’re pumping 120 tonnes out of the trawl. The fish is mixed with a few mackerel and we’re shifting further west and hoping we’ll get cleaner mackerel there,’ he said.
With the fish still being pumped aboard, the weights from the haul had not reached the wheelhouse, but he said that other boats in the area had been declaring an average weight of 370 grammes.
The area where the mackerel season begins is variable from year to year and Albert Sveinsson said that in the last few years the HB Grandi vessels have generally begun on mackerel further to the east on fishing grounds off Hornafjörður.
