The course of the fisheries as per 11th of January

A good opening for Atlanto Scandic herring as start of the New Year. Also a good start for North Sea herring - and close to 14.400 MT mackerel from foreign vessels. Atlanto Scandic herring
On the 2^nd of January the catching of Atlanto Scandic herring had started and the best day last week was Wednesday when 21.855 MT were reported. The grand total for the first week of 2010 amounted to 71.654 MT, and together with 6.200 MT caught in week 53, a total of 77.900 MT has been caught since Christmas. The first catches were taken in the Andfjorden before the herring migrated southwards along the outer part of Vesterålen heading for the Lofotodden. The high volumes resulted in a situation were the available volumes were higher than the industry could undertake.

Even if some of the best catches were sold at the West coast of Norway, aprx 1.300 MT were sold to meal&oil production. Another consequence was that the prices fell to a minimum for herring to consume purposes. - On the other hand, the meal&oil industry was able to offer fairly high prices and some catches were sold at NOK 2,15/kg. The year started with good weather at the fishing grounds, while later in the week Southwesternly gale took over and the conditions got bad. 

North Sea herring
4 catches were reported amounting to some 2.000 MT lats week. 3 of these catches were sold to Denmark and one to Germany. The prices; NOK 2,92 – 3,20/kg.

Mackerel
The catching by foreign vessels is performed fairly far South and West in the area between 55 and 56°N and West of 9° W. The accumulated volume sold over the NSS auction was 14.380 MT last week, and the fish mainly landed in Norway  

Bergen, 11^th of January 2010