Last Sunday, mackerel fishing within Iceland’s exclusive economic zone came to an abrupt halt, prompting the Icelandic fleet to head towards the southeast.
The boats are now targeting fish in the international waters of the ‘Smuga’ an area where Icelandic fishing vessels often operate, especially when the mackerel fishing grounds within the Icelandic exclusive economic zone become less productive, leading them to move to this region for better catches.
The trawler Beitir NK, however, made its way to Neskaupstað with nearly 300 tonnes of mackerel. Prior to Beitir NK’s arrival, both Barði NK and Margrét EA had docked at the port with over 800 tonnes each.
The Síldarvinnslan website spoke with Sigurður Valgeir Jóhannesson, captain of Beitir, who provided an update on the situation. He said: “We needed to land this catch before heading to the Smuga waters. The fishing in Iceland’s exclusive zone had completely collapsed. The fact is that people can be very pleased with the catch in the zone.
“We have managed to keep the processing continuous, and the five vessels in the fishing collaboration are nearly halfway through their quotas. The mackerel caught within the Icelandic zone has been exceptionally large and beautiful. We’ve had hauls where the average weight exceeds 600 grams, and we’ve even seen larger fish ranging from 700 to 800 grams. That’s massive.”
“Such large fish are not found in the Smuga waters, but it seems that the biggest and most robust fish reach here into the (Icelandic) zone. After landing, we will head straight to the Smuga waters, which are over 300 nautical miles from where the ships currently are,” concluded Sigurður.
The website also spoke with Odd Einarsson, chief engineer at Síldarvinnslan’s fish processing plant, about how the mackerel processing has been progressing.
“It has gone well as we have excellent staff. There will likely be a pause in processing now that the ships are moving out to the Smuga waters, but otherwise, the processing has been continuous since the start of the season. The fish is either whole-frozen, headed, or filleted, and we have produced more products this year compared to last. The fish we’ve been processing recently is exceptionally large. A lot of it is over 600 grams and even larger. I caught one particularly large specimen the other day and weighed it and it turned out to be 890 grams. That’s a real giant of a fish,” Oddur explained.
Recent reports from the Smuga waters indicate that fishing conditions were mixed among the vessels in the fishing collaboration, with a total of approximately 650 tonnes caught. The trawling lasted about 10 hours. As anticipated, the fish in the Smuga waters are significantly smaller than those caught within Iceland’s zone, averaging around 380 grams.
Herring has been spotted east of Iceland. Sigurður Valgeir Jóhannesson, captain of Beitir NK, reported that a herring shoal was observed off the Horn of Norðfjörður last night as Beitir arrived with a mackerel catch at Neskaupstað.
“Clearly, some herring has arrived here, although there have been previous reports of herring to the north of Iceland. We saw a distinct herring shoal during the last 10 miles before reaching the Horn of Norðfjörður, and this is the first herring we’ve seen this year. It seems to have come here for feeding, as there has been considerable baitfish activity. For instance, Norðfjörður harbour was full of baitfish the last time we landed mackerel,” added Sigurður.