Photo: Ivan Reid/Norges Sildesalgslag

The Norwegian Pelagic Fishing Course in Week 42

NORWAY
Tuesday, October 26, 2021, 07:00 (GMT + 9)

The best herring week of the year in the north, and a good mackerel hatch

Mackerel:

In total, we got a good mackerel hatch with 22,900 tonnes in the record. The best mackerel day was Wednesday with 7,000 t. Of the week's quantity, as much as 11,600 t have been fished by foreign vessels, purse seine have fished 8,200 t, trawl 1,700 t and coast 1,400 t.

The fishing for the largest boats has taken place in two fields;
One field around Storegga, around 40 km from Ålesund. Here, the Norwegian and Faroese fleets have fished for mackerel when the weather has allowed it. At the beginning of the week we got some nice catches with nets when the mackerel gathered. Throughout the week, the mackerel has been more scattered and then trawls have been the most suitable tool.

Photo: courtesy Ivan Reid/Norges Sildesalgslag

The second main field is southeast of Shetland in the British zone. In this area there has been good mackerel fishing throughout the week. And from 10 different boats, we have reported 9,700 tonnes, where the catches vary from 270 t to as much as 1,830 t as the largest catch. Fishermen report good fishing and a lot of mackerel in this area.

A look at the quota picture shows that we have now fished 258,000 tonnes of this year's quota of just under 305,000 tonnes.
If we include just over 9,000 tonnes that we fished on this year's quota last year, we have now taken just over 87% of the mackerel quota.
We still expect good participation in mackerel fishing where the unstable weather can hamper fishing also in the coming week.


NVG herring:

The good herring fishing out to sea continues and we can report the best herring week of the week with as many as 33,700 tonnes registered. This even though at times there has been a gale on the herring field. Saturday was the best herring day with just under 12,000 tonnes, closely followed by Tuesday where we had 10,400 tonnes.

The purse seine group has contributed as much as 23,300 t, the coast with 6,600 t, trawl 2,000 t and from two foreign boats we have 1,800 t.

Large quantities of herring are reported in the western edge of Tromsøflaket. Herring stands from just over 50 km NW of Torsvåg and further northwest over to N 72⁰15 'as the northernmost fishing position. There is nothing to suggest that the herring is moving in towards the fjords on North Troms yet.

The average sizes of herring vary from 204 g as the lowest to 290 g as the highest average weight. The weighted average size for the entire quantity is 261 g. This herring is attractive for fillet production, and several buyers are reporting excellent quality now.

With good herring fishing so far in October (107,000 t), it shows well on the quota picture for NVG herring. Of the quota of 495,000 tonnes, 336,000 tonnes have been fished. If we do not take the flex quantity into account, there are 142,000 tonnes left to fish in the next two months.

In the coming week, large participation in fishing is expected. Eastern gusts in the first part of the week can inhibit this fishing.

North Sea herring:

Only one boat "Christina E" was on the herring in the North Sea. They fished just under 500 hours at Vikingbanken in the middle of the week. This was a relatively large herring of around 250 grams.

Otherwise, a couple of catches have been made in the south-west of Norway.

Blue whiting / Norway pout:

Only three boats have reported fish from Kanten this week. And only 500 tonnes of blue whiting, 100 tonnes of norway pout, 80 tonnes of herring and 50 tonnes of horse mackerel have been fished.

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

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