With the winter capelin and blue whiting season behind them, Iceland’s pelagic fleet is gearing up for the summer mackerel season.
The Síldarvinnslan fleet is expected to start hunting for mackerel around 20th June, according to fleet manager Grétar Örn Sigfinnsson.
Beitir is alongside in Norðfjörður for routine maintenance and a new coat of paint. The company’s newest vessel, Börkur, is at the Karstensen yard in Skagen for its one-year survey. This is expected to take a few weeks, after which it will head home for the mackerel fishery. In its first year of highly successful operation, Börkur has landed around 80,000 tonnes of pelagic fish.
Some changes are being made to the company’s fleet, as Bjarni Ólafsson is being scrubbed from top to bottom before being mothballed following the blue whiting season, while Barði was drydocked at the shipyard in Akureyri following the capelin season, where it has been painted from top to bottom and the man engine has been given a major overhaul.
Bjarni Ólafsson’s crew are now switching over to Barði, and will make a start with the new pelagic vessel with this summer’s mackerel season.
Barði has been drydocked and overhauled ahead of the mackerel season. Image: Síldarvinnslan/Karl Eskil Pálsson
