No sign of herring yet

Five Icelandic vessels have been searching for herring in fishable amounts north east of Iceland since the beginning of the week, but with little success so far. Lundey NS sailed from Vopnafjördur on Monday and according to this trip's skipper, Stefán Geir Jónsson, there are real winter conditions on the fishing grounds and few signs of the herring that the Icelandic fleet has been able to fish in the past at this time of year, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to HB Grandi.

We spoke to Stefan Geir Jonsson yesterday when Lundey was in a position in the Herring Loophole at 68°30´N, 02°19´W, or around 330 nautical miles from Vopnafjordur, with the course set northwards for the Jan Mayen zone.

‘We here with Jona Edvalds SF, Borkur NK, Beitir NK and Asgrímur Halldorsson SF and started the trip in the area east of Vopnafjordur and from there north-east to the Herring Loophole. The sea temperature all the way out to 200 miles was 3° to 3.50°, which means that it's still winter out here," Stefán Geir Jónsson said, adding that they have swept a large area, with Jóna Edvalds searching as far as 0°.

He said that having to search for herring is nothing new, with the herring fishery taking a while to get started after the Seamen's Day stopover last year and not getting properly underway until around the 20th of June. There has been no sign of mackerel during the search, but Stefan Geir Jonsson said that some Faroese vessels have been fishing mackerel north of the Faroe Islands.