Photo: Stian W Iversen/Norges Sildesalgslag

The Norwegian Pelagic Fishing Course in Week 2

NORWAY
Tuesday, January 14, 2025, 00:10 (GMT + 9)

Good herring fishing in the north, mackerel from the west from both foreign and Norwegian boats

Herring NVG

There was a good herring week in the north, and from 82 different boats, we have reported 37,300 tons last week. It is the coastal group that has fished by far the most with a total of 23,800 tons, 10,800 tons from purse seine and 2,700 tons from trawling.

The fishing has taken place in the same areas as before Christmas. That is, from the inner parts of Kvænangen and further out to the northwest of Arnøya.

The fishermen here report a lot of herring, and they have mostly been quick on the field with several good herring hauls.

With new year classes entering the herring stock, the average sizes are exciting. They have mainly fished for fine herring that is in the range of 250-305 grams on average. A few have been in areas where the small herring is more mixed in, and one has gotten as low as 178 grams.

There has been good interest from buyers for the herring now at the beginning of the year. And they report good quality for both filleting and round packing.

We now expect the herring to soon start to seep out of Kvænangen on its journey to the spawning grounds. In the coming week, there will still be a good number of boats active in herring fishing.

Mackerel

Mackerel fishing has also started well, and a total of 18,200 tons have been fished last week. 16,200 tons were taken by 11 different foreign boats and the rest was fished by 4 Norwegian ones.

The foreign boats are from Denmark, Scotland (Shetland) and Northern Ireland.

For Norwegian boats, we have to go back to before Brexit in 2020 to find equally large mackerel catches in January.

The fishing has taken place in British waters around 60 nautical miles northwest of the Orkney Islands. All catches have been fished with trawls and there are reports of plenty of mackerel, where in some cases it is only a matter of "dipping the trawl" for a good trawl haul.

There are also reports of great interest from several markets around the world for mackerel. This is contributing to more Norwegian boats choosing to fish now in winter.

The sizes of the mackerel are in the range of 385 to 477 grams. With an average weight of 425 g.

We hope that in the coming week there will also be reports of good mackerel catches, from both Norwegian and foreign boats.

Blue Whiting

A couple of Norwegian boats sailed west to fish for blue whiting in the Faroe Islands. There was a poor gathering, and little blue whiting to both see and get. They, like Faroese and Icelandic boats, ended fishing after only getting some scraps.

One boat has also set course for the EU zone to fish for saithe west of Ireland.

Author/Source: Kenneth Garvik/Norges Sildesalgslag

[email protected]
www.seafood.media

Print