Jóhann Óli Ólafsson at Beiti NK happily welcomes a good catch. Photo: Ingvar Ísfeld Kristinsson / SVN

Mackerel catch improves for the Icelandic fleet

ICELAND
Wednesday, August 14, 2024, 00:10 (GMT + 9)

Icelandic mackerel fishing vessels have seen a significant increase in their catches in international waters, between the EEZ of Iceland and Norway, in the Smugunn area.

Last Friday, the mackerel boats started to catch well in the Smugunn zone, but for a while fishing had been sluggish and a lot of time was spent searching. After the fishing began in earnest, the catch of the Síldarvinnslu and Samherja vessels, which are in a fishing partnership, was pumped aboard Barða NK. The Barði then landed at Neskaupstaður, on Friday night 09 August, 1,400 tonnes of mackerel.

When the pumping of catch on board Barði was finished, pumping began in Beiti NK and it is on its way to Álasund in Norway with 840 tons. Beitir will start landing there in the morning. Next, the ships started pumping catch into Vilhelm Þorsteinsson EA and it had 860 tons on board this morning. It has been reported that mackerel has also been caught in Icelandic seas, so that there are many mackerel ships in many places. The Síldarvinnslan website spoke briefly with Þorkel Pétursson, captain of Barða,  asked him how the fishing trip had gone. 

"To begin with, there was a lot of searching with little success.Then the hunt broke out. The fish suddenly concentrated where we were in Smugun, and the remarkable thing is that the same thing happened within Icelandic jurisdiction, about 300 miles away from us. When fishing began, in practice, much more got into the fishing gear than people realized, so the first holes were a bit bigger than people wanted. 

From Smugun to Neskaupstaður is about 450 miles sailing, so these are long distances. It should also be noted that we have now been out for 13 days and will have covered 2,500 miles on the tour when we arrive to land. Then everything is included, sailing to the targets, sailing to landing, searching and fishing. But here on board the people are quite cheerful, the fishing went very well towards the end and there seems to be a lot of fish. You really can't ask for more," says Þorkell.

Source: Síldarvinnsnan hf (translated from original in Icelandic)

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