Brim : Big cod on the Dohrn Bank

01.12.2021

Big cod on the Dohrn Bank

Brim's fresher trawler Viðey docked in Reykjavík on Monday with a full fishroom, between 170 and 180 tonnes. The catch was taken on the Dohrn Bank, between Iceland and Greenland, an area that has been known only for shrimp fishing up to now.

'When you're searching for cod, then you search where they are likely to be. This time it was on the Dohrn Bank, and it came as a surprise to see how large these cod and, and how good their condition is. Around a third of the catch is eight kilo-plus fish, and they were stuffed with capelin. We didn't see any capelin caught in the meshes, and the pelagic fleet is searching for catchable amounts some way to the east, deep off the north coast,' said Viðey's skipper Jóhannes Ellert Eiríksson.

Not many people will be familiar with where the Dohrn Bank is, and it's a long time since the Icelandic fleet fished there. The Dohrn Bank is north-west of the Westfjords, on the mid-way line between Iceland and Greenland. Large shrimp were fished there around 1990, and the fishing area is significantly larger on the Greenland side of the line along the deep gully.

According to Jóhannes Ellert Eiríksson, they left the Dohrn Bank when there was enough in the fishroom to keep production ashore busy.

'We stopped off in the Víkuráll Gully and had both cod and redfish there. The cod there were nothing like the fishing on the Dohrn Bank with its large fish. We have 15-16 tonnes of cod liver on board after the trip, and that's an indicator of the size of these cod,' Jóhannes Ellert Eiríksson said.