SLOWER FISHING ON MACKEREL

Mackerel fishing has begun to slow down after some excellent catches this summer. According to Hjalti Einarsson who is skippering Faxi RE this trip, the mackerel are inclined to disappear down to the sea bed and are more of a problem to catch.

‘As things are at the moment it’s more of a lottery and we’re steaming while we search for good enough marks to shoot on. We started fishing two days ago and have 300 tonnes on board, so we need another hundred tonnes to have enough for production ashore, and hopefully we’ll have that by tonight. I expect to be alongside at at Vopnafjördur tomorrow,’ he said when we spoke to him yesterday with Faxi off Hvalbak south-east of Iceland. Ingunn AK had just arrived on the fishing grounds and Lundey NS was still landing at Vopnafjördur.

At the end of last week HB Grandi’s fleet still had 4000 tonnes to be taken of its mackerel quota, with the start of the fishery on herring approaching. Hjalti Einarsson said that he had been aware of herring off the east coast of Iceland from the Héradsflói Deeps and southwards, with at least one vessel already on herring in the Reydarfjördur Deeps.