HB Grandi: Blue whiting starts

The blue whiting season is already in progress and several Icelandic vessels have already joined the fishery. Three of HB Grandi's pelagic vessels, Ingunn AK, Faxi RE and Lundey NS, are scheduled to fish on blue whiting this year. Ingunn sailed last night and is steaming to fishing grounds. Faxi and Lundey are expected to sail tonight or tomorrow, reports www.megafishnet.com.

According to Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson, head of department at HB Grandi's pelagic division, the fishing area is at the southern end of the Faroese EEZ as the blue whiting migrate north from Scottish waters and into the Faroese zone. Quotas for this year have been increased significantly on the basis of an improving stock, although this year's quota is just a fraction of the volumes that were being landed only a few years ago. HB Grandi has a 12,845 tonne quota this year and with good fishing this should be caught relatively quickly.

Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson said that here are already a number of Norwegian, Faroese and a good few Russian vessels fishing for blue whiting.