Photo: Arild Sekkingstad (2019)/ Norges Sildesalgslag

The Norwegian Pelagic Fishing Course in Week 2

NORWAY
Monday, January 18, 2021, 19:00 (GMT + 9)

This winter's best week for NVG herring, and still a lot of mackerel from the west.

NVG herring:

We had the best week of the winter with as much as 31,700 tonnes in the record, where the best days were Monday and Sunday with a daily quantity of just over 7,000 tonnes.

This week's quantity has been fished by 63 different boats and they have taken catches from 1,100 hours as the highest and all the way down to 8 hours as the lowest.

In relation to which group has contributed, coastal fishing has by far the most with 18,900 t, purse seine 7,000 t and trawls with 5,600 t

In addition to 2,000 tonnes fished in the Vesterål area, all catches have been taken into the sea north of Andenes. The fishing here has taken place over a relatively large area where at the beginning of the week one fished as far north as over 120 n.mil from Andenes. This weekend, the herring has moved south and the boats have fished northwest of Sveinsgrunnen, about 20 n. Miles of Andenes.

Nordland within Norway ►

Herring from this area have average weights from 282 as the highest to just under 190 as the lowest average. The total average is around 230 grams.

No herring has been reported from the Norwegian Sea in the new year. Some boats have leased in the area west of Lofotodden in the Norwegian zone without result. Before the weekend, a couple of Faroese boats came in herring in the Smutthavet as far west as 280 n.mil off the Norwegian coast. A couple of Norwegian boats arrived this weekend and the fishing is reported as far as labored with small catches.

We still expect good participation in herring fishing in the coming week. The hope is that the fleet can be divided into two areas, with fishing for larger herring (300g +) in the Norwegian Sea and one fishing for herring outside northern Norway.

Mackerel:

20,400 tonnes were registered from the foreign mackerel fleet last week. Here, the catches vary from 240 t, to as much as 2,000 t as the largest catch. There are 16 different vessels that have contributed to this quantity. These boats come from Scotland (7), Shetland (4), Ireland (2), Denmark (2) and a Dutch boat.

The fishing for mackerel has, as last week, taken place in the British zone northwest of the Orkney Islands. A lot of mackerel is reported in this area and the boat has taken several good trawl halls.
From the buyers, good quality mackerel is reported.

It is unusual with so much mackerel so early in the new year, where we now have about two weeks into the new year have as many as 53,600 in our journal .. The main reasons for this are good weather conditions, a lot of mackerel and that the boats after Brexit have more freedom on where the mackerel can be fished.

In the coming weeks, we still expect deliveries from foreign boats.

Horse mackerel:

Along the coast of Rogaland and Vestland, just under 300 tonnes of horse mackerel have been fished from the smallest coastal fleet. The sizes of this are in the range 400-500 grams.

From two Irish boats, which have also delivered mackerel, we have 690 tonnes of horse mackerel. These catches were taken in the British zone northwest of the Hebrides. The horse mackerel here is slightly smaller than that in the fjords, with an average weight of around 300 g.

Coastal sprat:

"Spjæringen" has had two sprat trips with a total of 100 tonnes. The catches were taken in the areas outside Sandefjord. This is large sprat where it goes around 50 pcs / kg.

Lodde Island:

The first exploration was hampered by ice in the west and a lot of wind so the mapping was not ideal. Based on the information we have, less capelin was registered now than last autumn.

We assume that the Icelanders will take a new round of exploration. And then surely wait for better ice conditions and a longer weather window.

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

editorial@fis.com
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