1100 tonnes of herring and mackerel landed at Vopnafjordur

Despite an extensive search for herring inside the Icelandic EEZ, in international waters and in the Jan Mayen zone, results so far have been poor and HB Grandi's pelagic vessels have so far landed around 1100 tonnes of herring and mackerel this season, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to HB Grandi.

These catches were taken in Faroese waters over the weekend, and according to agreements between Iceland and the Faroes that limit Icelandic catches to 1300 tonnes of mackerel in the Faroese zone, the Icelandic fleet will now have to stay clear of Faroese waters even when herring is the target species.

According to Ingimundur Ingimundarson, HB Grandi's pelagic division operating manager, Lundey NS landed around 400 tonnes of herring and mackerel at Vopnafjördur last Sunday and on Monday Ingunn AK docked with 700 tonnes on board.

‘Catches are split roughly equally between herring and mackerel, and as the mackerel quota in Faroese waters is no bigger than it is, we will have to search elsewhere,' he said, adding that the fish landed so far is mainly small, fairly thin fish. Production at Vopnafjördur is running at full speed and has been going well. As was mentioned here last week, there have been winter conditions across fishing grounds North-East of Iceland, but with improving weather and rising temperatures, there are hopes that the prospects will also improve for herring and mackerel so that fishing can start inside the Icelandic zone.