26,000 tonnes of blue whiting quota left

Venus and Víkingur will return to fishing blue whiting and have 26.150 tonnes of quota left to be caught. This became clear following the Fisheries Minister’s decision to increase the quota by 39,000 tonnes, of which 7700 tonnes falls to the HB Grandi fleet, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to the company.

According to Ingimundur Ingimundarson, pelagic fleet manager, so far 12,800 tonnes of blue whiting have been caught this year. The company has an allocation of 32,424 tonnes, and including options to transfer quota between years, the remaining quota stands at 26,150 tonnes.

Venus and Víkingur have been tied up at Akranes since the end of the capelin season before Easter. They are now docked in Reykjavík. The capelin season started in mid-February and Venus landed the first capelin of the season at Vopnafjördur on the 22nd of February. The season ended with Víkingur landing on the 19th of March. Between them, the two pelagic vessels landed 16,700 tonnes for the season. Approximately 12,500 tonnes were landed for production at Vopnafjördur, plus roughly 4100 tonnes at Akranes. Every effort was made to process all catches for human consumption, but the nature of the fishery is that a certain share is processed for fishmeal and oil.

In addition, Norwegian vessels landed approximately 1200 tonnes of capelin in Vopnafjördur last season, of which 790 tonnes were frozen for human consumption.