The course of the fisheries as per week 44/2019

Norwegian Spring-Spawning Herring
Last week was the best week for Norwegian Spring-Spawning herring so far this fall, about 51.600 MT was landed. The week started off great with approximately 11.000 MT both Monday and Tuesday, and if we include last Sunday about 33.000 MT were landed in three days.

This kind of volume in a three-day span is a bit more than the industry can handle and we therefore experienced some unsold catches at the auction. However, both the fishermen and the buyers put their best foot forward and all the catches were sold and landed. Pricewise, this kind of volume in a short amount of time is not favorable for the fishermen.

The herring is still being caught in two different areas, west in Norwegian waters/Smutthavet and outside of Kvænangen.

In the Norwegian Sea the catches are caught both in an area at almost 69°N and in an area around 67°N. The fishermen report of decent amounts of herring, but since the fish stands deep the catch conditions aren’t optimal.  

Of the weekly volume around 33.000 MT has been caught from these areas in the Norwegian Sea. Most of this has been landed for consumption in Norway, but a few catches, about 2000 MT, have been landed for indirect consumption purposes.

Catches from three Danish vessels and two Irish vessels are included in the weekly volume.
34 purse seiners have caught 25.750 MT, six coastal vessels have caught 2000 MT, two trawlers have caught 1330 MT and four foreign vessels have caught 4250 MT.

The size in the Norwegian Sea averages to 378 grams.

From the fishing grounds in Kvænangen, which extends to Fugløybanken, it has been caught 18.300 MT of herring. The average size in this area is 275 grams. Seven purse seiners have caught 6.600 MT, 37 coastal vessels have caught 11.700 MT. Around 2.800 MT have been landed for indirect consumption purposes.

The results from the test-fishery in Kvænangen came this week. And due to large volumes of cod and pollock in the catches the fjord line won’t be opened yet. It hasn’t been any penned-in activity yet, but we might see some next week.


Mackerel
Around 17.200 MT of mackerel were landed this week, mostly caught by foreign vessels. The foreign vessels have caught their volumes, 10.885 MT, in the area South-East of Fair Isle and east of Shetland.

The Norwegian fleet have landed 6.215 MT from the same area. Purse seiners have caught 1655 MT, the costal fleet have caught 3975 MT and a trawler has caught 610 MT.

The size of the mackerel from the Norwegian vessels has ranged from 369-469 grams, giving us an average of 438 grams.

100 MT of mackerel have been caught outside the coast of Norway, 56 MT of these have been penned-in Bømlo. 40 MT, divided between three catches, comes from hook-fishing from the area between Egersund and Karmøy.


North Sea Herring
The North Sea herring fishery has been shifting from week to week, this week approximately 1000 MT of herring was reported, including bi-catches. 970 MT was caught directly and three of the catches were from route 41-10 out of Scarborough.

The size of the herring from this area ranges from 160-210 grams.

This week the Directorate of Fisheries also revoked the split quota for the costal fleet.  


Indirect consumption
The Norway Pout fishery improved this week and a total of 3000 MT were reported. 1115 MT were caught in Norwegian waters.

1185 MT came from the area around Bressayhola in EU waters, and 735 MT from Fladengrunn.

We’ve also received about 650 MT of blue whiting, 290 MT of argentine and 300 MT of hose mackerel.