Purse seiner Víkingur to tap Iceland’s increased capelin quota

Purse seiner Víkingur AK is now fishing on capelin off Hornafjördur, and this follows the decision to increase the capelin quota for this season when it looked as if the additional catching capacity would be needed, according to HB Grandi.

Víkingur sailed from Akranes on Tuesday but did not start fishing until early this morning when the first shot was taken. Akranes is approximately 24 hours steaming time from fishing grounds off Hornafjördur.

‘We have taken two shots  and have 300 tonnes of capelin on board. There’s a hard, nasty bottom here, which causes us problems, and hopefully we can find areas of softer ground where we can shoot the purse seine,’ said skipper Gunnar Gunnarsson when we spoke to him at midday.

He commented that a number of fishing vessels in on the grounds, including four from the Faroes. There was a 24-hour burst of bad weather before Víkingur reached the fishing grounds, but this has now improved. He said that he expects to land at Akranes, with the first landing of the season to the HB Grandi plant there. Víkingur is now one of the four HB Grandi vessels fishing on capelin, along with Ingunn AK and Lundey NS which are both at sea, and Lundey NS, which is discharging at Vopnafjördur.