AN early sign of wintry conditions has appeared on some of the Icelandic fishing grounds which may not bode well for supplies in the next few weeks. At the moment fewer than 100 of Iceland's vessels are at sea because of the weather.
The trawler company HB Grandi has said it has suspended fishing for capelin - the season is currently in full swing - over the past several days because of some very difficult weather and plenty of sea ice in the Denmark Strait.
The company said it seemed that the larger capelin are keeping to just this area, as only smaller grades of capelin have been seen on fishing grounds north of Iceland. Víkingur AK landed around 200 tonnes of capelin at Vopnafjördur last week after its third trip of the season. The previous trip resulted in a landing of 1,500 tons
According to Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson, departmental head at HB Grandi’s pelagic division, conditions have been very difficult with constant northerly or north-easterly storms in the Denmark Strait and sea ice over a wide area. He said that the trawler Víkingur had searched for capelin in the Kolbeinsey area on its way to land in Vopnafjördur, but without success.
Víkingur is now in port at Akranes, with its sister vessels, Ingunn AK and Lundey NS, and are due to sail as soon s the weather improves and the sea ice situation improves. Forecasts indicate that this could be at the end of the week at the earliest. As well as capelin, HB Grandi has a 1,000 tonne quota on Icelandic summer spawning herring that Faxi RE is expected to fish in Breidafjördur in early November.
So far supplies of cod and haddock to the Humber have not been affected and Grimsby has had some good supplies in recent days. But bad weather has a habit of blowing itself from the Denmark Strait towards the cod and haddock fishing grounds.
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