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Commercial Fishing

EXCELLENT CATCHES OF NORTH SEA HERRING BY NORWAY

EXCELLENT CATCHES OF NORTH SEA HERRING

Excellent catches of North Sea herring by Norway. It has been a great week for the Norwegian North Sea herring fishery and another good week for the sandeel fishery, reports Norges Sildesalgslag (a Norwegian Fishermen’s Sales Organisation for Pelagic Fish).

A total of 28.800 MT was reported of herring was reported in the catch journal this week. One has to go all the way back to the same week in 2014 to find a week where herring was caught larger volumes. The catches are divided between about 3.000 MT to maatjes, about 3.330 MT to frozen/filet and about 22.500 MT for fish meal and fish oil purposes.

Of the fish caught for matjes about 2.000 MT was caught in EU waters and 1.000 MT in Norwegian waters. The herring for frozen/filet purposes have mostly been caught in Norwegian waters.

.The fishery has taken place in multiple areas this week, from the Koralbank/Utsira in the south to Oseberg/Vikingbanken in the north (Norwegian waters). There’s also been some catches from EU waters, by the border, and east of Shetland. However, most of the herring has been caught in Norwegian waters, by the Koralbank/Utsira.

Over the weekend a couple of vessels have searched and reported catches from the southern part of the Norwegian waters. The herring from this area has been larger in size, averaging to 200 gram. We hope that the herring gathers more in this area so that the fishery picks up.

The size of the herring varies a lot, and the herring for frozen/filet production ranges from 130 – 215 gram, averaging to 169 gram. The herring for maatjes ranges from 128 – 156 gram and averages to 134 gram.

A handful of vessels have set course for Skagerrak this week, but only two of them caught small amounts of herring. The fishermen report of poor catch conditions.

Over the past couple of weeks, the sandeel fishery has also been good and a total of 28.800 MT was reported. The fishery was somewhat slow at the beginning of the week, but “Odd Lundberg” came across sandeel in a different area further south and the sandeel here was large in size.

By Wednesday most of the fleet had relocated to this area but spread out and sat course west again after a while. Of the total quota only 30.400 MT remains, and nine vessels have finished the fishery.

Of the weekly mackerel volume of 125 MT everything was penned-in but not everything was sold for the fresh market. In the south of Norway about 30 MT has been sold for frozen purposes and about 100 MT has been sold for the fresh market. About 170 MT remains unsold.

Catches caught along the west coast of Norway range from 250 – 450 gram.

The first mackerel catch from the north of Norway came this week, 25 MT was caught outside of Værøy. The fish from this area has a great quality and the size averages to 430 gram.

Three horse mackerel catches were reported this week, 7 MT from Sundal and 17 MT from Askvoll.

Three vessels have reported a total of 740 MT of Norway Pout, 60 MT of blue whiting and 30 MT of argentine.

 

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