There has been some good fishing on the Fugløy Bank in the Barents Sea since HB Grandi’s factory trawler Therney arrived there in mid-January. According to skipper Kristinn Gestsson, the first week there was very good and since then catch rates have been reasonable.
One of the biggest fisheries in the Pomorye region of the White Sea coast and surrounding areas in Russia, Arkhangelsk Trawl Fleet (ATF), has been certified to the Marine Stewardship (MSC) Fisheries Standard.
‘The weather has been good, and so has the fishing. Prices are reasonable, but they’ll drop as they always do when the fishing gets heavy,’ said Arthur Bogason, president of the World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fish Workers, former chairman of the Icelandic National Association of Small Boat Owners – and himself an inshore fisherman.
ANIFPO and Sea Source launch a new whitefish sales division on Monday 1st of February.
2016 has started well for small-scale fishermen in the Baltic, according to Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE) after an end to 2015 that was fraught with uncertainty.
HB Grandi’s trawlers have made a good start to the new year. As in previous years, the search is on for saithe around the coast, but saithe are not easy to find. On the other hand, there is plenty of cod at this time of year while redfish remain elusive.
Faroese and Icelandic fisheries ministers, Hogni Høydal and Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson, have announced an agreement that gives Faroese fishing vessels greater access to Icelandic waters next year as well as increased reciprocal access for both countries to each others’ EEZs.
The Fisheries Council is over. The delegates have left Brussels for another year and the results are a mixed bag, much if which is surprisingly encouraging –not least with the spectre of the landing obligation about to be applied to demersal fisheries across Europe.