Image: courtesy Norges Sildesalgslag

The Norwegian Pelagic Fishing Course in Week 2

NORWAY
Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 04:50 (GMT + 9)

Herring from the north, mackerel from the west and record cargo with capelin landed on Møre

NVG herring:

We received a lower weekly quantity last week compared to the first week of the year. A total of 15,200 tonnes were fished, which is divided into 8,800 tonnes from the coast, 6,000 tonnes from purse seines and 400 tonnes from a boat in the trawl group. Of the week's quantity, 6,600 tonnes are registered this weekend.

The fishing for the coastal fleet has mainly taken place inside Kvænangen, while the purse seine boats have been on the outer north of Fugløykalven. The trawl catch was fished 15-20 miles northwest of Torsvåg.

For the smallest fleet that depends on a guide boat, we had the last catch on Monday. These boats had trouble reaching the herring, which has remained relatively deep throughout the week. As a result, only 5,400 tonnes were fished in January from the "lock setters" in Kvænangen.

Photo: Norges Sildesalgslag

The average sizes of herring are in the range 220 - 283 g, with a weighted average of 265 g. We see that the herring that is caught at the far end has the lowest average weight.

In the coming week, we still expect good participation from the coastal fleet, and it will be exciting to see how long it stays in Kvænangen. More trawlers will also be in herring mode, while purse seine boats will focus more on capelin fishing off Iceland.

Mackerel:

On the mackerel field, there has been a lot of wind during the week and only before the weekend did the boat go out on the mackerel field. We registered 11,300 tonnes in total, where on Saturday it was as much as 10,000 tonnes.

This week's mackerel quantity is fished by eight different boats from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Shetland. All catches are fished west of Shetland, where the average weight is in the range 360 ​​- 450 g, with an average of 427 g.

If the weather does not hamper fishing, we still expect mackerel landings from foreign boats in the coming week.

North Sea herring:

We also got some North Sea herring in the record this week, and fishing of this kind is relatively unusual now in winter. This is because we have a larger quota this year (126,358 t), as well as little access in the British zone, with only a quantity of 17,000 t.

A total of 2,100 tonnes were fished last week. This is distributed with just over 700 hours on Monday and just under 1,400 hours on the weekend. Herring are fished in the area around Vikingbanken with both nets and trawls. The herring sizes vary from 210 - 260 g.

Capelin:

From Iceland, good capelin fishing is reported in the last period, and in total the Icelanders have fished over 122,000 t of their quota of 662,064 t.
With the good capelin fishing over there, they have challenges in producing away all the capelin. On Friday, we sold the catch to «Beitir» of as much as 3,000 tonnes of capelin to Triplenine Vedde near Ålesund. This is the largest capelin catch on a keel landed by a Norwegian buyer.

For Norwegian boats with a quota of 145,382 t in Iceland. Here "Andrea L" sailed on Wednesday night. So far, the catch has been modest, nor has it been ideal for seine fishing.

Even with extreme weather this weekend, a total of eight boats have set sail for capelin fishing. Significantly more will go early this week. Then we can hope that the weather conditions for both the crossing and on the field can improve in the weeks ahead.

Author: Kenneth Garvik//Norges Sildesalgslag (Translated from original in norwegian)

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