According to Therney’s skipper, Kristinn Gestsson, fishing has been very good since the Icelandic trawlers started on redfish on the 10 May.
"Things started off quietly but picked up and the last three or four days have been excellent. The redfish are in thick shoals so we have been fishing carefully. This means that we have shortened the tows so as not to get too much in each haul. Our maximum production capacity is 45 to 50 tonnes per day, depending on what we are producing, so we can cope well if we are getting around 35 tonnes per day."
Conditions on the 200 mile limit are very different to and better than those of a year ago when the Icelandic fleet was able to start fishing. For two weeks before that, there had been heavy fishing by Russian trawlers just outside the limits, but the skippers are certain that as sea temperatures fell after May last year, the redfish dispersed and went elsewhere. Kristinn Gestsson said that he wasn’t at sea at that time, but other skippers are convinced that the falling temperature was the reason the redfish became so hard to find.
"Temperature is a critical in where certain species go. For the deep sea redfish, the depth they are caught at makes a significant difference to quality. The surface temperature where we have been fishing is 8.5°C and we are towing at 300 to 500 fathoms, where there is a 4-5°C temperature," Kristinn Gestsson said.
