HB Grandi says there are still some decisions to be taken on the last of this season’s mackerel quotas: according to the company’s pelagic division, there remains only around 2,000 tonnes to be caught.
Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson of HB Grandi said, “We have flexibility to keep some quota back for next year, or we could also now take 10% of next year’s quota, which would give us an additional 1,500 tonnes on top of this year’s catch.”
To give an idea of conditions, he said that the excellent mackerel fishing only fell away a few days before the end of August. A large fleet of both pelagic boats and factory vessels had been fishing on a small area off the east of Iceland.
Mr Vilhjálmsson added that the situation is very different to that of Atlanto-Scandian herring. The company has 12,000 tonnes of its herring quota still uncaught and hopes that this will be enough to keep the pelagic factory at Vopnafjördur running into October.
He went on to explain that as there is generally a mackerel by-catch with the herring, the pelagic vessels need to keep some mackerel quota back to cover that so as to make the most of the herring fishery.
