HB Grandi: Herring over, capelin next

HB Grandi's herring fishing for the year is now finished. Lundey NS was in Vopnafjordur last Wednesday with 800 tonne catch which the HB Grandi´s factory finished processing on Friday. Then Faxi RE docked the following night with 900 tonnes from its last herring trip of the year, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to HB Grandi.

This year HB Grandi's vessels had a total of 4800 tonnes of Icelandic summer spawning herring to catch, and this leaves only 300 tonnes that are to be held over to next year.

Skipper Albert Sveinsson on Faxi said that fishing had been good during the last trip and their 900 tonnes had been taken in two shot of the purse seine not far from land just outside Stykkishólmur.

‘The herring has normally mostly been caught in narrow passages, such as the Kidey Sound, but weren't there this time. But there were significant amounts of herring where we shot away. Conditions weren't easy with the rise and fall of the tide and strong currents. We had a 1.80 knot tide to deal with during the first shot and the second time we shot was at slack water, so that it was a lot easier to handle," Albert Sveinsson said when Faxi was on the way to Vopnafjördur to land on Wednesday last week.

Now that the herring season is over, the capelin is due to take over, although it is still undecided when HB Grandi's vessels will start on the capelin fishery.