Russian and Icelandic boats searching for blue whiting

Three of HB Grandi’s pelagic vessels, Ingunn AK, Lundey NS and Faxi RE are now searching for blue whiting on fishing grounds south of the Faroe Islands. Ingunn and Lundey have already been there for two days, while Faxi has just arrived on the fishing grounds. So far they have not been successful finding any blue whiting, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to information from HB Grandi as per 5 April.

‘There are also a few Russian ships here as well as us and I understand they haven’t had much luck either,’ said chief mate and relief skipper Róbert Axelsson on board Ingunn, commenting that the Icelandic vessels that sailed to start on blue whiting are now either in port in the Faroes or steaming from Iceland.

‘There are a good few pelagic boats fishing on blue whiting in the EU zone west of Scotland a long way south of us and there has been some good fishing there. It’s just a question of how long it takes for the fish to migrate north into the grey zone between the UK and Faroese EEZs.’

The HB Grandi fleet has a 22,000 tonne blue whiting quota this year.