According to skipper Albert Sveinsson on board Faxi, things have been quiet to begin with, although Faxi had managed to take 170 tonnes in two hauls and a third haul was in progress as we spoke to him.
‘There’s not much happening yet. We’ve been here since Sunday and started by steaming back and forth to find some reasonable marks. We didn’t find much to start with but took 100 tonnes in the first shot and 70 tonnes after that. Now we’re scraping what we can from small patches,’ he said and added that there is very little other fish to be seen in their catches.
‘We haven’t even had enough for a fry, which is a surprise considering we’re towing right on the bottom as the pearlside seem to sit hard on the ground in some places, and higher in the water in others. The freezer trawlers are fishing not far from here, so it’s a surprise that we’re not seeing other fish species in the gear as well,’ said Albert Sveinsson, who commented that he has been towing shallow grounds but not far off the deeper edges.
He said that pearlside is a small fish and keeps badly.
‘We are icing the catch with slurry ice to keep things as fresh as possible, but it’s obvious that there’s no point in doing any long trips. It’s just as well it’s not far to land in Akranes,’ Albert Sveinsson said.
