FAXI STARTS ON CAPELIN

Things have been quiet on the fishing grounds north of Iceland since the pelagic fleet started its search for capelin in the New Year. According to Albert Sveinsson, skipper of Faxi RE, the capelin are dispersed and marks are loose. Faxi is now fishing 90 nautical miles north of Raudinúpur, and by yesterday evening had 390 tonnes on board after three hauls.

‘We took the first haul yesterday and that was reasonable. Then we towed during the night and didn’t do so well from that, and we have just taken the third haul. The longest we have towed is six hours,’ he said, commenting that the capelin are good sized fish at around 42 pieces per kilo according to yesterday’s samples, with little feed in the fish.

As well as Faxi, HB Grandi’s two other vessels, Ingunn AK and Lundey NS are on the same grounds along with Westmann Islands pelagic boats Sigurdur and Heimaey.

‘Ingunn is taking its first haul now but we all seem to be in much the same situation. Things are quiet. It would be ideal to be steaming to Vopnafjördur with 600 to 700 tonnes of capelin, and hopefully we can get closer to that tonight and tomorrow. There’s a storm forecast for Tuesday, although the weather has been fine since yesterday,’ Albert Sveinsson said.