ANNONCER
Some heavy fishing on capelin kicked off few days ago in shallow water off Skardsfjöruviti, with capelin caught in only eight fathoms of water in some places, according to Albert Sveinsson, skipper of HB Grandi’s pelagic vessel Faxi RE.
People’s interest was piqued in the north-western Icelandic town of Isafjordur this morning when one of its biggest and best-known fishing trawlers unloaded its catch in neighbouring Bolungarvik following a decision by Isafjordur town that the fishing company opposed.
The 10th annual Marel Salmon ShowHow got off to a record start today, with no less than 200 visitors from almost 100 companies attending the event, which is being staged as usual at the company’s premises in Nørresundby, Denmark.
‘I felt that this deserved a celebration, so we splashed out on cream cakes for the crew, and they were richly deserves,’ said factory manager Gudmundur Hannesson at HB Grandi’s Akranes plant, as Ingunn AK arrived with full tanks of capelin in its home port. This was the first full landing of capelin to the Akranes fishmeal factory for almost three years.
Freezing capelin has been brought to a halt at HB Grandi’s Vopnafjördur factory for the moment.
The Marine Research Institute has recommended that the Minister of Fisheries increase the capelin quota for the season from 200,000 tonnes to 325,000 tonnes. This has been done following research into the size and distribution of the capelin stock earlier this month, now that the resulting data has been analysed. If the Minister follows the Institute’s recommendations, HB Grandi’s share of the capelin quota could be 44,000 tonnes this season.
Newbuilding 409 from Karstensen Shipyard in Skagen, was delivered to owners ÓS ehf on 20 December 2010.
There are six pelagic vessels now searching for pearlside in the Grindavík Deeps and according to Ingunn AK’s skipper Gudlaugur Jónsson, there isn’t much happening there. Ingunn began fishing last Saturday and catches have been from 100 to 200 tonnes per day.
A 600 tonne catch that Faxi RE docked with at Vopnafjördur on Tuesday night is now being landed and according to skipper Albert Sveinsson, these fish were caught north of Langanes. Faxi had bad weather for the whole trip and he said that with such difficult seas, conditions were bordering on being too rough to fish.
Capelin production has started at HB Grandi’s factory in Vopnafjördur after Lundey NS landed 680 tonnes late last night. Factory manager Magnús Róbertsson said that the capelin is slightly smaller than the fish that were being landed at the end of last year, but there is no great difference. A good proportion of the fish goes for human consumption and the fish that are graded out are passed to fishmeal production.