Poor Weather Halts Fishing

Production has been virtually constant since fishing started at the beginning of the summer on mackerel and Atlanto-Scandian herring, and this is the first time that a lack of fish has stopped production.

The reason behind it is that the weather worsened at the beginning of the week, which slowed down mackerel fishing. Although weather improved later in the week, worse weather is forecast which could continue to hamper fishing again.

According to Vilhjlmur Vilhjlmsson, head of department at HB Grandis pelagic division, approximately 11,500 tonnes of product have been frozen at Vopnafjrdur so far, or which the bulk is mackerel at 8700 tonnes.

The season has certainly gone very well. The weather this summer has been unusually kind and there has been hardly anything to delay the fishing. These small delays have not affected production until this week, and the stoppage was used to deep clean the equipment and production areas, he said, commenting that the mackerel has been mostly headed and eviscerated before freezing, while herring has been processed into butterfly fillets. The entire production at Vopnafjrdur this season has been for human consumption, with only offcuts and fish that have been separated out of the process used to produce fishmeal.

According to Vilhjlmur Vilhjlmsson, sales have been positive and products have been shipped out regularly several times each week.