HB Grandi: Two weeks of filthy weather

‘This capelin season has been one of the toughest because of the weather, especially over the last couple of weeks. Conditions have been appalling and have really challenged the ships, the gear and the crews. Many people have had a very rough time of it. We have been shooting on big marks in heavy seas and some people have seen their gear badly damaged,' said Gudlaugur Jónsson, skipper of HB Grandi's pelagic vessel Ingunn AK, now steaming to Vopnafjördur with between 1600 and 1700 tonnes of capelin caught in Faxa Bay on board. Ingunn is scheduled to dock at Vopnafjördur tomorrow morning, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to HB Grandi.

It's certainly no exaggeration to say that this season's weather has made fishing extremely difficult, and it has not helped that the capelin have recently only been within range during daylight hours. This reduces any flexibility in fishing, and as an example of how difficult the season has been for the pelagic fleet, there was no fishing weather for half of Saturday and all of Sunday.

According to Gudlaugur Jónsson, most of the fleet fishing for capelin has been in Faxa Bay yesterday after a new capelin migration was reported.

‘There were twelve pursers fishing in Faxa Bay and seven or eight fishing on a mark west of Grindavík. Most of our catch was male fish, around 70-80%. But after we moved into shallower water closer to the lava fields, the ratio between male and female fish was closer to equal,' he said.

Lundey NS is currently being discharged at Akranes and is expected to be back at sea later today. Faxi RE and Víkingur AK are at sea with 400 tonnes and 1000 tonnes respectively on board. Huginn VE is now also fishing HB Grandi's quota, and taking these vessels' catches into account, the company had roughly 10,500 tonnes of its capelin quota left this morning.