‘We’re keeping our heads down at the moment, as the weather is terrible with wind speeds of 30m/sec and heavy seas. I couldn’t say how long it’s going to take to get to Akranes, but I’m steaming west in the hope that it’s calmer in that direction,’ said skipper Arnthór Hjörleifsson of Lundey NS, when we spoke to him at midday today when Lundey was deep south of Iceland on blue whiting grounds west of the British Isles.
He said that Lundey had been on the grounds for a week when the weather had already been taking a turn for the worse.
‘Apart from a part of one day, the weather’s been rough the whole time. We have 700 tonnes on board, all taken in a howling gale. The fishing dropped off a few days ago and we can see that the fish have since shifted into Irish and UK territorial waters. Fishing has been very good and they are doing very well in Scottish waters south of the Faroes right now,’ Arnthór Hjörleifsson said, and commented that there are hopes that the blue whiting will shift as soon as possible into the grey zone south of the Faroes. He added that the blue whiting caught so far have been large, good quality fish.
According to Arnthór Hjörleifsson, they have had to work hard for their fish this trip, and he said that he is not aware that HB Grandi’s two other pelagic vessels, also fishing on the same grounds, have taken any significant catches this trip.
‘Ingunn managed to shoot away once yesterday, but mostly we have been searching around for blue whiting in catchable amounts and dodging through the bad weather,’ Arnthór Hjörleifsson said.
