"We are pleased with the results and the experience of pair trawling has worked out well in my opinion," says skipper Albert Sveinsson of pelagic trawler Faxi RE.
For the time being, all of the HB Grandi's Icelandic pelagic fleet on herring has switched to pair trawling, with the exception of Huginn VE, which is fishing with a specially rigged trawl. Ingunn AK has a similar trawl and Mr Sveinsson says that this will be tried out soon, so they will have a better comparison of how pair trawling performs in terms of fuel consumption.
"The main advantage is that the fish are less likely to be spooked when the trawlers are each side of a mark with the trawl between them. When we are fishing by ourselves, we normally have to pass right over a shoal of fish that is often right on the surface, before the trawl reaches it."
Faxi RE landed 1,400t of fish for meal production at Eskifjördur in one day towards the end of July. The fish was caught trawling with Ingunn AK. Mr Sveinsson says that fishing took place over a wide area east of Iceland.
"We are working over a big area and the fleet is very dispersed. Some of the trawlers have been working in Faroese waters, but the furthest we went in this trip was to the Faroese EEZ limit line. The herring aren't easy to find, with small marks and the fish moving fast as they search for feed. They appear to be moving north or north-west, which isn't a surprise,' he says, commenting that there are amounts of mackerel to be found, although how much herring there is varies.
