Pelagic first in Iceland
Icelandic pelagic vessel Börkur has landed purse seine-caught mackerel for the first time, with 630 tonnes of mackerel caught in international waters 280 nautical miles offshore, and close to the Faroese line.
Icelandic pelagic vessel Börkur has landed purse seine-caught mackerel for the first time, with 630 tonnes of mackerel caught in international waters 280 nautical miles offshore, and close to the Faroese line.
This isn’t the first time Vónin has outgrown its home, managing director Hjalmar Petersen said. The company built a net loft for demersal production in Tórshavn in 2005, as well as in Greenland and Lithuania in 2014 – now it’s time for Vónin’s headquarters to follow.
A new Gunnar Langva will join the Norwegian fleet in 2019. This is a replacement for the 2003-built vessel of the same name and the owners have gone back to the same yard and designer for their new purse seiner/pelagic trawler.
The Lerwick-based Zephyr Fishing Company has signed a contract with Larsnes Mekansiske Verksted for a new pelagic vessel to be built to a Skipsteknisk ST-125 design.
The Karstensens yard’s latest delivery is a 70m pelagic vessel for Fraserburgh owners with a history going back more than a century. Grateful FR-249 replaces the 64 metre Forever Grateful, which was sold in 2016 and is now fishing as Trygvason for its Norwegian owners.
After landing 450 tonnes of top-quality mackerel caught around the Westmann Islands, skipper Jón Axelsson said that the next stop is Greenland.
The Zamakona Shipyard in northern Spain has been contracted to build a new pelagic vessel for Shetland owners.
Hampiðjan technical adviser Sæmundur Árnason has spent three weeks at sea on board Murmansk Trawl Fleet’s catcher-processor Mekhanik Kovtun to keep a close eye on the gear during the trawler’s first trip with a new set of gear for targeting mackerel.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Menhaden Management Board has reviewed the results of the 2017 assessment and concluded that the resource is healthy.
The spell of bad weather that passed over Iceland last week has dropped away, and the fleet is back at sea but not finding it easy to find mackerel scattered by the storms.