ONE of Iceland's largest catchers of mackerel during the current dispute says it still has around three weeks of fishing left, even though the season is now coming to a close.
HB Grandi reports that its herring and mackerel quotas are now being used up rapidly. Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson, head of the company’s pelagic division, said HB Grandi hopes to be able to continue for another three to four weeks as long as the fishing and the weather hold out. He added that the fleet fished well last week with one vessel landing 870 tons of both species for processing.
Mr Vilhjálmsson added: ‘It’s good-quality herring for production and we processed 1,500 tonnes last week for freezing. By yesterday morning we had processed a total of 12,000 tonnes so far this summer at our Vopnafjördur plant , of which 7,500 tonnes of herring products and 4, 800 tons of mackerel."
The company announcement indicates that Iceland and its fishing companies believe they are doing no wrong in fishing heavily for mackerel, despite universal condemnation from the European Union and Norway.
Mr Vilhjálmsson pointed out that last week several Norwegian pelagic vessels were fishing on Atlanto-Scandian herring in Icelandic waters, along with several Faroese vessels.
Meanwhile, Iceland's Fisheries Ministry said its unilateral decision to hike its mackerel quota was "completely justified," adding Iceland was never subject to a mackerel limit. The statement added: ""One should refrain from attempting to make Iceland and the Faroe Islands particularly responsible for this as the EU and Norway are no less responsible."Negotiations for a long-term deal are due to resume in October.
0 comments:
Post a Comment