HB Grandi: Mackerel and Atlanto-Scandian herring seasons over

Lundey NS docked late last night in Vopnafjördur with 550 tonnes of herring on board. Lundey had been fishing alongside Ingunn AK and the trip marks the end of HB Grandi's quotas for Atlanto-Scandian herring for this season. The company's mackerel quota has also all been caught, reports www.megafishnet.com.

Lundey skipper, Arnthór Hjörleifsson, said that there had been only a minor by-catch of blue whiting and virtually no mackerel had been seen.

‘We caught our fish east of 10°W, or north-east of the Red Square, which is around twelve hours steaming from Vopnafjördur. We finished our quota this morning and started steaming just before midday,' he said, commenting that the herring is large and excellent quality. Sampling on board gave an average weight of around 400 grammes.

Arnthór Hjörleifsson said that fishing on herring and mackerel this summer and into the autumn has gone very well, although spells of bad weather have kept them off the fish occasionally since the beginning of the month.

‘The weather has been terrible all through October so far. There has been constant strong winds, which makes pair trawling difficult,' Arnthór Hjörleifsson said. In the later part of the season, using two vessels to tow a single large trawl between them has been shown to be the most effective method.

According to Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson, head of department at HB Grandi's pelagic division, the intention is for Lundey to start fishing on capelin in the next of week. One of the company vessels, Víkingur AK, has already been searching for and fishing on capelin all this month so far, starting as soon as the Icelandic fleet was able to start its capelin season.