Brim: Mackerel moving fast, but no clear migration pattern

‘The mackerel are moving fast but they don’t seem to have decided where they want to go. We have seen them shifting quickly eastwards for one or two days, then they turn around and start swimming back west again, or northwards.'

‘This time we started fishing at the northern end of the Herring Loophole, but then there was a storm blowing and the mackerel seem to have shifted north of the Jan Mayen line,’ said Theódór Thórðarson, skipper of pelagic vessel Venus, when we caught up with him Yesterday.

By then Venus was heading home to Vopnafjörður with around 610 tonnes of mackerel and he expected to be there late today.

‘There has been good fishing when there weather has been reasonable and this time we managed three tows the day before yesterday, for the first time this trip, and then the weather worsened and it’s blowing hard now,’ he said, adding that there is clearly a great deal of mackerel there.

‘I hear there’s good fishing at the southern edge of the Herring Loophole now and that’s where the Russian trawlers have been for the last few days. There wasn’t much to be had there when we sailed, but going by the amount of mackerel over a wide area and the weather set to improve after tomorrow, things are looking good,’ Theódór Thórðarson said.