The course of fisheries as per week 1/2019

Atlanto Scandic herring
Following a quiet opening, the results improved in North Troms County as 11.300 MT were registered last week. It was coastal vessels dominating the activities, and these vessels reported 10.800 MT. Two purse seiners registered some 500 MT.
There is still a lot of herring in the area Reisa Fjord and Kvænangen. The size has been from 215 -265 g with an average at 246 g.
Last year the herring started to migrate around the 10^th of January. Hopefully the herring is not in a hurry this year, enabling the fleet to operate in North Troms most of January.
Contrary to the availability observed in the fjords, it is quite different when it comes to the Norwegian Sea. Some ten bigger vessels have been looking in an area from 67⁰ N to 72⁰ N, and partly also in the “Loop Sea”. The registrations from these areas are very modest as the herring is both wide-spread and staying deep. “Gardar” is the only vessel with a catch in the Norwegian Sea. On board they got 90 MT in one haul on Saturday, some 80 n.m. east of Røst Island.
Such a situation is not quite unusual in the period just prior to the start of migration towards the spawning areas. The herring will most likely be available in a fortnight’s time when the herring moves into more shallow waters.

Mackerel
Ten different vessels registered a total of 9.700 MT last week. This volume was shared on four Danish vessels and six Norwegian. It is no common that Norwegian vessels are catching mackerel at this time of the year, but following a good market - and prices, the vessels are tempted to operate now during January.
All catches were taken west of Shetland, and the vessels reported good observations and ‘effective’ catching. – The size varies from 330 g in the low end to 448 g at the best. A balanced average gave 406 g.
We expect more mackerel to be registered in the forthcoming week as more Norwegian vessels as well as some foreign, will be operating.

Horse mackerel
A group of smaller coastal vessels have been chasing the horse mackerel in the fjords of the Norwegian west coast. Eleven different vessels have reported some 220 MT last week. The catches vary from 5 to 30 MT, and as normal, the horse mackerel has a good size when taken in the fjords; the average at some 500 g.
Also, here the market is good, giving good prices.

North Sea herring
When it comes to North Sea herring, there was one catch by a purse seiner in Skagerrak last week; 220 MT. Having this fact in mind, five new vessels set their course for North Sea herring. With a quota of just 1.764 MT in Skagerrak, there will be no more catching here.
In addition, the vessel “Spjælingen Sr.” has caught some 50 MT off Sandefjord. The average; 140 g.

Sprat
220 MT were caught in Dutch waters in the North Sea. Size; 90 pcs/kg and the catch was sold to ‘King Oscar’ for canning.
From the same vessel getting the North Sea herring, we also had a catch of 36 MT of big sized sprat; 43 pcs/kg being an excellent size for seasoning. The catch was delivered in Sweden.