Meet the fishers

Following migrating herring

The Faroese Pelagic Organization Atlanto-Scandian herring fishery comprises five large technologically advanced vessels (four RSW-vessels and one processing vessel) using purse seines and pelagic trawl. They follow the migration of the Atlanto-Scandian herring stock closely as it moves from the wintering and spawning grounds along the Norwegian coast to the summer feeding grounds in the Faroese, Icelandic, Jan Mayen, Svalbard and international areas.

Bogi Jacobsen, skipper of the Finnur Fríði says: “Being a fisherman on a pelagic fishing vessel is an exciting life. Pelagic fish migrate a lot; so much time is spent trying to locate schools of fish. Fishing vessels will search over a wide area, and communicate with each other about the quantities they find. Sharing information with others is very important, because the next time you will benefit from information that you receive from them. The fish is sold in different countries, like Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Scotland, Ireland, Germany as well as the Faroe Islands, so one gets to see a lot of places, try different kinds of food and meet a lot of people.

A good day at sea

We had a really good day recently, fishing off the beautiful Lofoten archipelago in northern Norway. Early in the morning, as we were approaching an area were many vessels were looking for herring, we discovered large schools of herring. With only one other vessel close by, we had plenty of room to fish. On our first try, there was so much herring that the trawl was on the verge of busting. We nearly lost both fish and equipment, but we were lucky. The equipment held. Within 8 hours we had almost 2000 ton of herring, and were happily on our way to the market. By then the rest of the fleet had arrived to benefit from our discovery.

Chasing schools of fish

But it doesn’t always go as planned. Two weeks later we were out again, and this time the weather was so bad that fishing was impossible. We could see large schools of herring with the sonar, but putting the trawl into the water would very likely cause damage to it, and also put the men in unnecessary danger. After waiting out the storm in a small Norwegian fishing town, we tried again. Things didn’t go well. By now the herring had migrated further south, and we only got 200 ton on the first day of fishing. We had to go searching again.  When we caught up with the herring, the schools were near the surface, and that’s when the purse seine method is used.

On our first try, the school escaped, so after getting the net into the boat again we tried again. This time it looked like it was going to work, but when we pulling the net in again, we discovered that the main wire was tangled with the net, which tore the net badly and it also cost us several hours of struggling to get the net untangled and the loss of valuable fishing time. By this time the herring had sought deeper, so we decided to try with pelagic trawl, and got our first decent catch of the day, 300 ton of herring. Now things were looking better, so we put the trawl out again.  A moment later there was a big bang and the boat shook. One of the two main wires had snapped, and that means real trouble. The huge pelagic trawl along with the trawl door gets all tangled, and we were lucky, just to get it back.  Still there were 200 ton more herring in the cod-end, which is the tail-end of the trawl. Fortunately we had another trawl, so after several hours of untangling net and repairing the busted main wire, we gave it another try. When we pulled the trawl in, it gave 300 more ton of herring,  but we also discovered a large tear in the belly of the net, so big that it was impossible to repair at sea. After 40 hours of fishing with only a couple hours of sleep, and almost everything going wrong that could go wrong, we had still managed to get an acceptable amount of herring.

Too tired to ‘turn in’, the crew sits around in the mess for an hour, discussing the day’s events. Disappointed that the catch wasn’t bigger, but proud to have overcome all the obstacles of the day. Those kinds of days is what causes the crew to bond, and become like a family. On dry land they call it team-building.”