ICELANDIC FREEZER TRAWLER REPORTS GOOD CATCHES

Icelandic freezer trawler reports good catches. Brim’s freezer trawler Örfirisey docked in Reykjavík towards the end of August after two weeks at sea. This time it was for a half-landing, so the new quota year (on 1st September) will take effect during the second part of the trip. Skipper Arnar Haukur Ævarsson is satisfied with catch rates so far, and the trip to date has seen a green catch weight of around 400 tonnes.
“We have been on the Westfjords grounds for most of this time. Although we started off in the Skerja Deeps and had deep redfish and silver smelt there. The catch was reasonably good, and altogether we had three days there,” he said.
From the Skerja Deeps Örfirisey headed northwards to the Látragrunn area.
“There was very good fishing for haddock on the Látragrunn grounds, as there is elsewhere off the Westfjords. Then the weather blew hard for two days, and we used the time to work our way northwards to the Hali grounds. We have often seen good fishing for saithe there at this time of year, but this time it was more of a challenge than usual. This was particularly because there’s a vast number of golden redfish on the Hali grounds. We were in the position of trying to avoid the fish that’s most abundant while trying to catch the one that’s scarcest. Overall, we did pretty well, even though what we had was mostly redfish, with some haddock and saithe,” Arnar Haukur Ævarsson said.