Iceland’s Atlanto-Scandian herring season has come to an end for this year, with Síldarvinnslan’s pelagic vessel Börkur finishing with a 1225 tonne herring landing in Neskaupstaður last week.
Previously, the company’s other pelagic vessel Beitir had landed 1620 tonnes of herring, which skipper Tómas Kárason said had been caught in the eastern part of the international zone.
‘We had our fish in five hauls, and the largest was 500 tonnes. Tows were short, from an hour up to three and a half hours. There was good fishing and good weather this trip, and a lot of herring to be seen,’ he said.
Bjarni Ólafsson had also landed 980 tonnes last week from its final Atlanto-Scandian herring trip, caught in three hauls.
‘Each tow was three and a half hours and we were 17 hours fishing,’ said skipper Runólfur Runólfsson. ‘This was a fine trip and the herring is very good quality fish. We were fishing in the international zone not far from the Norwegian line, and 380 nautical miles east of Dalatangi.’
The Síldarvinnslan pelagic vessels are now gearing up for the Icelandic summer-spawning herring season, which has already begun off western Iceland and the first catches taken in the Jökull Deeps have already been landed. Bjarni Ólafsson has made a start on the summer-spawning herring and is on its way back eastwards to Neskaupstaður to land 980 tonnes of herring caught off the west of Iceland in four hauls. Beitir is also fishing off the west coast, after arriving on fishing grounds last night
While the RSW vessels have switched summer-spawning herring, the freezers are continuing to fish on Atlanto-Scandian herring, with Hákon due to land to the cold store in Neskaupstaður tomorrow and Vilhelm Thorsteinsson is fishing.
