HB Grandi: Big fish over a wide area

Faxi RE docked at Vopnafjördur this morning with a full load of between 1450 and 1500 tonnes of blue whiting on board. The fish were caught at the southern end of the Faroese EEZ and according to Hjalti Einarsson, who was skipper for the trip, there have been pelagic vessels fishing over a wide area there. The blue whiting do not appear to be forming tight shoals and 300 to 350 tonnes is normal for a nine- to ten-hour tow, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to HB Grandi.

‘We started fishing just after midnight on the 13th of April, starting with fairly short tows as the intention was to land the fish in the Faroes to be processed and frozen for human consumption. Our plans had to change because of problems with getting a landing spot, so after that we started towing for longer and got some good hauls. This is fine quality blue whiting with an average weight of 160 to 170 grammes, which is pretty good,' Hjalti Einarsson said.

There is a 430 nautical mile steam home from the fishing grounds to Vopnafjördur, which he said took 35 hours. There was fine weather all the way, which helped shorten Faxi's steaming time. Ingunn AK is now due in to Vopnafjördur tonight with full tanks, although the trip was interrupted by damage to the fishing gear when a Russian trawler's trawl doors got caught up in Ingunn's pelagic trawl. Fortunately Lundey NS, which is also due to dock at Vopnafjördur tomorrow with a full load, was close by and had a spare trawl on board that they were able to transfer across for Ingunn to finish its trip.