HB Grandi's freezer trawler Helga Maria AK is due to dock in Reykjavik tomorrow after a short trip. The 7000 cartons on board will be landed and a new Hampidjan Gloria pelagic trawl will be taken on board for the redfish season that is about to start. According to skipper Eirikur Ragnarsson, there is no great pressure as the redfish quotas have been cut significantly since last year, reports www.megafishnet.com

Production from the 1540 tonne landing by Faxi RE finished last Friday at HB Grandi's fishmeal plant in Vopnafjordur. According to factory manager Sveinbjorn Sigmundsson, this was the last full trip of blue whiting that the company's vessels will have this year and the outlook is now that production at Vopnafjordur will not start again until the end of June when fishing on mackerel and Atlanto-Scandian herring begins, reports www.megafishnet.com.

HB Grandi's pelagic vessel Faxi RE is now close to finishing its last targeted trip on blue whiting for the year, and is currently at a position around 70 nautical miles south of the Faroe Islands. Faxi has around 1200 tonnes on board already and chief mate Ebenezer Gudmundsson said that they are hoping to have filled up by the end of today. As Faxi has a maximum carrying capacity of 1550 tonnes, there is every chance that they will be setting for Vopnafjordur later today, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to HB Grandi.

The world's largest seafood exhibition, an annual event held in Brussels, closes today. Around thirty Icelandic companies took part this time, among them HB Grandi. According to Svavar Svavarsson, the company's marketing director, this event has proved its worth time and again - and this year is no exception, reports www.megafishnet.com

The European Seafood Exposition in Brussels was formally opened this morning and continues until Thursday. Among those participating are a 15-strong team from HB Grandi. Alongside the Seafood Exposition itself, a sister event, Seafood Processing Europe, is being held as the platform for companies providing equipment or offering services to the seafood processing industry, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to HB Grandi.

The blue whiting season is already coming to an end and the company's vessels now have only 2500 tonnes of their 12,600 tonne quota left to catch. This isn't a big quota, but is still a big improvement on last year's quota when HB Grandi's pelagic vessels had less than 1000 tonnes, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to HB Grandi.

Around thirty Icelandic companies and organisations will be taking part in the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels this year from the 24th to the 26th of April. These include HB Grandi, which has exhibited at the specialist seafood exhibition every year since 2005. This makes it the eighth time that HB Grandi has taken to opportunity to present its activities and products at Brussels, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to HB Grandi.

Faxi RE docked at Vopnafjordur this morning with a full load of between 1450 and 1500 tonnes of blue whiting on board. The fish were caught at the southern end of the Faroese EEZ and according to Hjalti Einarsson, who was skipper for the trip, there have been pelagic vessels fishing over a wide area there. The blue whiting do not appear to be forming tight shoals and 300 to 350 tonnes is normal for a nine- to ten-hour tow, reports www.megafishnet.com

‘We have 370 tonnes of blue whiting on board now after three fairly short tows. There was some talk of landing in the Faroes, but that idea was scratched when it became clear that getting a landing spot there is easier said than done. There's a queue to discharge in the Faroes at the moment,' said Gudlaugur Jonsson, skipper of HB Grandi's pelagic vessel Ingunn AK when we spoke to him on Friday when Ingunn was fishing on blue whiting around 70 nautical miles south of the southern point of the Faroe Islands, reports www.megafishnet.com

The blue whiting season is already in progress and several Icelandic vessels have already joined the fishery. Three of HB Grandi's pelagic vessels, Ingunn AK, Faxi RE and Lundey NS, are scheduled to fish on blue whiting this year. Ingunn sailed last night and is steaming to fishing grounds. Faxi and Lundey are expected to sail tonight or tomorrow, reports www.megafishnet.com.

OJSC Russian Sea Group (the "Company" or the "Group"), one of Russia's leading consumer food companies, announces the appointment of Olga Farenbrukh as Chief Executive Officer of the company "Russian Sea" (ready-to-eat segment) effective April 1st, 2012. The Company sincerely thanks Alexander Maksimov, the former CEO of more than two years, reports www.megafishnet.com.

The Russian herring market which has been stable for a long time showed some negative processes in 2011 and the basic factors forming the dynamics have not only retained in 2012 but even grown stronger, the conclusion has been made by FISHNET analysts (http://www.megafishnet.com/, http://www.fishnet.ru/) who have studied trends of raw fish supply, capture, export and import.

Marine Harvest ASA (leading supplier of salmon to world market and Russia in particular) has entered into agreements with the largest European institute for applied research within fisheries, aquaculture and food, Nofima, and the leading Norwegian agricultural feed producer, Felleskjøpet Rogaland Agder, which opens up for establishing a leading Norwegian salmon feed company with a yearly production capacity of up to 500.000 tonnes of salmon feed.

A New Zealand-led survey of young toothfish in Antarctica has found high densities of the highly-prized fish in the southern Ross Sea.

HB Grandi's pelagic vessels finished their capelin season at the end of last week with 1583 tonnes of the quota left uncaught, or less than 1.50% of their allocated 110,000 tonne quota. Production came to an end at Vopnafjordur last week while at Akranes the last landings of capelin were enough to keep production going into the middle of this week, reports www.megafishnet.com.

Dear Friends, we would like to inform you that even in situation of worldwide globalization of the fish market, there are some companies as WORLDFISHEX LLC., Salem (General Director is VYACHESLAV SHIPUK, anyway he is saying so).

HB Grandi's pelagic vessels now have around 1500 tonnes of their capelin quota remaining to be caught and the skippers hope to catch what they have left this week. Ingunn AK has finished its season, while the others are still fishing - although currently sitting out a storm in the shelter of Gardskagi, reports www.megafishnet.com.

The finalists for the 2012 European Seafood Exposition Seafood Prix d'Elite new products competition were announced on Monday by event organiser Diversified Business Communications of Portland, Maine

The results of HB Grandi's annual audit of its fish production have been received and the only verdict that can be given is that these are some excellent results. The audit is carried out according to International Food Standard (IFS) criteria and the audit carried out in January saw the company's fish processing plants in Reykjavik, Akranes and Vopnafjordur given a 98% rating, reports www.megafishnet.com

The capelin season's end is approaching and this year there seems to be a good chance of the full quota being caught. It is of course impossible to say with any kind of accuracy just how long the fishery will last, but if the capelin are available through next week and the weather holds, the prospects look good, reports www.megafishnet.com