Full production for the whole trip

Factory trawler Örfirisey docked in Reykjavík on Tuesday this week, completing its first trip following the Seamen’s Day stopover. According to skipper Arnar Haukur Ævarsson, this was a fairly standard trip. Catches were good, production was kept active throughout and the green weight catch is estimated at 1100 tonnes.

‘We started in the Skerja Deeps and did well for deep redfish and silver smelt. There has been an unusually strong showing of deep redfish compared to previous years, plus we have had a lot of silver smelt. This is headed and wholefrozen, as we do with redfish, and there’s generally some redfish catch with silver smelt. Production is relatively straightforward, but it’s still demanding for the crew, and we had 70 tonnes going through the factory deck every 24 hours,’ he said, adding that he also spent some time looking for saithe in viable volumes on the Mountains.

‘We didn’t find any saithe, so the decision was taken to steam to Reykjavík for a half-landing on 23th June, and from there we headed for the Westfjords.’

This meant starting on the Látragrunn grounds after landing in Reykjavík.

‘There we had very good fishing for haddock and cod, and in fact there was too much cod with the haddock. So we hauled up and decided to try off the Ísafjörður Deeps. We found some fine fishing there for haddock. From there we moved to the Deild grounds. There was excellent fishing there for haddock and we had a lot of large, good-quality fish that were three kilos and over,’ he said and commented that they were still on the lookout for saithe. Unfortunately, this time the saithe failed to show up.

‘Then we steamed back south and finished the trip back on silver smelt and deep redfish in the Skerja Deeps. That worked out well,’ he said, and added that at this point in the year the quota situation for most species is getting tight. There are few vessels that have as strong quotas as Örfirisey for golden redfish, but they have to be cautious when it comes to other species.

‘Our main problem is to do with the war in Ukraine. If that hadn’t broken out, under normal circumstances we would have been starting to fish now in the Russian sector of the Barents Sea,’ Arnar Haukur Ævarsson said.