Icelandic trawlers landing 5000 tonnes of blue whiting

All three of HB Grandi’s pelagic vessels called at Vopnafjördur this weekend after their first trip deep south of the Faroes. Faxi RE landed late on Friday night, docking with 1500 tonnes of blue whiting on board,while Lundey NS followed on Sunday wth 1600 tonnes and finally Ingunn AK arrived late on Sunday night with 2000 tonnes in its tanks. This totals 5000 tonnes of blue whiting landed at Vopnafjörur this last weekend, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to HB Grandi.

‘This starts off our season and hopefully the blue whiting will keep us busy up to the middle of May. We’re hoping to be able to maintain production, and right now the fishmeal production is running at full capacity, which is around 800 tonnes of raw material per day,’ said Sveinbjörn Sigmundsson, factory manager at HB Grandi’s Vopnafjördur factory.

He said that the blue whiting are lean, as can be expected at this time of year, although he felt that the sizes are better than last year where there was a proportion of smaller fish in catches.

‘The plan is that we manage the quota to keep production going for 30 to 40 days, and after that there will be a break in fishing activity until the mackerel and Atlanto-Scandian herring fisheries begin, which won’t be before late June/early July,’ Sveinbjörn Sigmundsson said.