BLUE WHITING AND SANDEEL FISHING IN PROGRESS FOR NORWEGIAN FLEETS

Kenneth Garvik of NORGES SILDESALGSLAG reports on the progress Norwegian pelagic fisheries in week 16 of the year.

Blue whiting:
We have only five catches of blue whiting last week, with a total quantity of 4,000 tonnes. The catches are fished in three different economic zones.

At the beginning of the week we got a catch from the EU zone, northwest of Ireland. Throughout the week, fishing dubbed off here, and with reports of blue whiting in the Faroe Islands zone, the boats pulled there. From here, three boats have reported catches this weekend.

In addition, “Gollenes” has fished for blue whiting and herring in the Norwegian zone, in the area around the Statfjord field.
Of the week’s quantity, as much as 2,600 tonnes have been sold for consumption to buyers in Ireland and Norway.

In the coming weeks, the boats that will fish for blue whiting will mainly focus on the Faroe Islands. Kolmula now moves north and passes the Faroese waters. There is a lot of activity in this fishing from several nations, and at the time of writing there are 25 boats and trawls. These are boats from the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Russia, Denmark, Greenland and Norway.

Sandeel:
Sandeel fishing opened on April 15 and a boat went out and started fishing. “Sille Marie” became the first boat this year with registration on Monday, when they registered 450 hours after three days of fishing at Inner Shoal.
After Easter, several boats went out and this weekend, another five boats reported catches, and a total of 3,000 tonnes have been fished. The fishing has been uneven in the beginning, where the boats have moved around on different sandeel banks.
From the buyers who have received sandeel, there are reports of a decent size and relatively lean fish. A lot of redfish is reported in the fish, and with sun and summer, the fat content will increase over time.

Mackerel / horse mackerel:
From the smallest coastal fleet, we have registered 30 tonnes of mackerel and 37 tonnes of horse mackerel.
For mackerel, it will hopefully also “come to life” in the future. If we get sun and little north wind, the fish normally gather now throughout the spring.

Source: https://www.sildelaget.no/no/media/nyhetsarkiv/siste-nytt/fiskets-gang-uke-16/