The course of the fisheries as per week 45

Still great volumes of spring-spawning herring, and some mackerel

Spring Spawning Herring:
Considering that last week was the falls best week for spring-spawning herring the volume went a bit down this week, but we registered a good 45.100 MT.  The purse seiners caught 27.300 MT, the coastal fleet caught 14.200 MT and the trawlers caught 2.000 MT of herring. Three Russian vessels are temporarily storing 900 MT in Norway and a Danish vessel caught 700 MT.

The fishery still takes place in the Norwegian Sea and in the area outside Kvænangen.

However, the fishermen report of difficult conditions in the Norwegian Sea as the herring stands deep and is spread across a large area. Catching with seine can therefore be problematic since the fish only is reachable for a short period of time, and with trawl it has been tricky to catch it since the herring “shoots to the side”.

The size in the Norwegian Sea ranges from 355-382 grams. Out of this week’s volume 22.400 MT has been caught in this area.

It’s been caught a similar volume from Kvænangen, a total of 22.700 MT has been reported from this area. The availability has been varying and the herring mostly migrated past the “fjord line”. But after conducting test fisheries throughout the week the Directorate of Fisheries opened up Reisafjorden and the top of Kvænangen for fishery by the costal fleet.

The size has varied more in this area and ranges from 183 to 300 grams, averaging to 264 grams.

Throughout the weekend the smaller costal vessels who usually pen-in the fish joined the fishery as well. A transport vessel is already loaded, and more are on their way.

A quick look at the quota overview shows that we have caught about 340.000 MT of the quota of 468.629 MT (including flex).

 

Mackerel:
It was reported a bit more mackerel this week, 12.600 MT, 11.000 MT of this came from foreign vessels. Seven Scottish and Shetlandic trawlers. The remaining 1.600 MT was caught by six vessels, both purse seiners, trawlers and costal vessels.

The fishery has mainly occurred further north than it did earlier this fall, east of Shetland.

The size has varied and ranged from 375-460 grams. The weft of mackerel <250 gram has been as high as 13 percent.

Only a few Norwegian vessels have quotas left, including “Skipsholmen” who recently took over the old “Strand Senior”. Since the foreign vessels also are finishing up their quotas we are expecting less mackerel volume the following weeks.  

 

North Sea Herring
1.300 MT was reported from seven vessels this week and apart from one all the catches were caught East of England, as far south as Hull. Five of the catches has been caught with trawl. One catch of 140 MT was caught in Norwegian waters west from Lingbanken.

The size from this area has been decent, 200 grams.

Since a few vessels still have quotas left we are expecting some activity in this fishery.

 

Horse Mackerel:
Seven costal vessels have caught a total of 180 MT of horse mackerel along the coast from Rogaland to Møre. The size ranges from 412-600 grams.

 

Costal Sprat:
One catch of 40 MT was caught in Nordfjord. The size being relatively large with 68 per kg.

Both the Oslofjord and the Trondheimsfjord were opened for fishery on Saturday at 16:00. Based on the decent fishery last year, six vessels sailed out to the opening in the Trondheimsfjord.

So far, the fishery and the recordings have been less than last year, and a couple of vessels have left the fjord. There’s been one catch of 35 MT from the fjord, 72 per kg.

 

Indirect consumption:
Five vessels have caught a total of 2.100 MT of Norway Pout in EU waters. One vessel has caught 360 MT of blue whiting, 200 MT of argentine and 35 MT of horse mackerel.