Bigger and better mackerel than usual

Brim’s pelagic vessel Venus is alongside in Vopnafjörður to discharge its catch. According to skipper Bergur Einarsson, this is between 1500 and 1550 tonnes, and he reports that this is larger and higher quality mackerel than the fleet has been used to seeing up to now.

‘The average weight is 440 to 460 grammes, and that’s noticeably more than we have seen at this point in the season on previous years,’ he said, adding that for the first part of the trip, fishing for mackerel was slow.

‘Then there were 36 hours of good fishing for us and Svanur. These were 100 to 130 tonne hauls after towing for five to six hours. This was all clean mackerel with no by-catch,’ he said, commenting that it is noticeable how fast the mackerel are moving northwards. During this 36-hour period, the fish moved 87 nautical miles to the north.

He said that it’s a long steam to the mackerel fishing grounds, and there are 350 nautical miles between Vopnafjörður and the position where Venus hauled for the last time.

‘Svanur and Víkingur are operating together now, and we pump all catches into one vessel’s tanks so that the fish is as fresh as possible when it is processed,’ Bergur Einarsson said.