UPDATE ON NORWEGIAN PELAGIC FISHING

Update on Norwegian pelagic fishing. Norwegian pelagic sales group Norges Sildesalgslag has provided an update on pelagic fishing for fishing season week 34.

Mackerel:
This week’s quantity of mackerel was the same as last week with a total of 20,900 tonnes registered. The best fishing day was Friday with 6,100 t and Sunday with 5,300 t.
There is still a large participation from all fleet groups in mackerel fishing, and the week’s quantity is divided by 12,100 t from purse seine, coastal 5,600 t, SUK 800 t and from trawl we have 2,400t. The good fishing for mackerel on the coast has continued and from the smallest coastal fleet, there are reports of a lot of mackerel from Nordmøre in the north and as far south as Rogaland, where especially the dwarf fleet has had very good catches.

For the large boats that are further out to sea, this week has also been difficult. At the start of the week, the fleet was gathered in the area around Vikingbanken. One rumour from the foreigners who fished in the Smutthavet got over half the fleet heading north. There was little of this, but before the weekend there was some fishing at N 64⁰ for the seine fleet, and some nice catches north of Tampen for those trawling for mackerel. At the weekend, the boats again pulled into the North Sea in the area from Vikingbanken and south to Heimdal.

A number of mackerel are reported in this area, but they are scattered and difficult to see on the instruments. It is also challenging to find something to throw at and many people now use trawls at night to catch the mackerel. This can be illustrated by the fact that of the week’s quantity, 6,700 t was fished with trawls.

Mackerel sizes vary widely, where on the coast one fishes mackerel with an average weight of less than 300 g. From the sea, it varies from 370 g as the lowest to over 500 g as the highest. The average for catches here is 415 grams

There will continue to be a large participation from the “sea fleet” going forward. The weather forecast for the coming week is a bit “shakier”, so we’ll see what it does to the fishing. For those who fish on the coast, we see that many are now in port with their quotas. And we therefore expect somewhat lower activity from here.

North Sea herring:
For North Sea herring, it was a week with a good amount of 13,100 tonnes. This is divided by 9,700 t from 9 foreign boats. The remaining quantity (3,400 t) is fished by Norwegian boats from various fleet groups.

The foreign boats have fished herring with sizes from 195 – 225 grams. As is known, the North Sea herring spawns in autumn and the catches of the foreign boats have ideal roe maturation for roe production. These catches have been taken in three different areas. One field around the Orkney Islands, one east of Peterhead and the southernmost is east of the English coast at around N 54⁰

The Norwegian boats have mainly fished on the Viking Bank. The herring here is large, with average sizes of up to 260 g. This herring is not suitable for roe pressing and therefore several catches are converted to meal/oil use.

From the foreign boats fishing for roe herring, a smaller quantity is expected in the future. For the Norwegian boats, there are now only 9,700 t left of the quota of 130,060 t.

Fishing for flour/oil:
With several of the trawl group’s boats in mackerel mode, the quantity for flour/oil from “Kanten” is modest.

From four boats, 540 t of halibut, 300 t of coal mullet, 140 t of horse mackerel and a few tonnes of stream herring have been fished.

By Kenneth Garvik