Fish Update Briefing, Friday, June 1

HOOKED – A COD FULL OF PLASTIC
A 54-year-old Norwegian recreational fisherman Siv Ingebrigtsen received the shock of her life when she pulled in a 11 kilo cod recently to find the fish was full of plastic. She said the plastic included a over a metre of packing tape and a bunch of other tape, along with a packing straps of the type used to tie up pallets. Siv, who comes from Halsa municipality in Nordmøre, said: \”We soon saw that something was not quite as it should. One could see outside the fish that there was something strange inside it. The stomach was not round, there were several elevations on it.”
SALMON VISITOR CENTRE PLANNED
THE Norwegian company Refsnes salmon is planning to build a large salmon centre for visitors in Trondheim. It will not only tell the story of salmon farming but will be equipped with aquariums and various other attractions. Jon Refsnes, managing Director of Refsnes Salmon,  said the company was ready to start work on the project almost immediately, but was no waiting for approval from the Directorate of Fisheries. He hoped  it will be ready before the end of 2019. The centre will be run by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Science Museum
FISHERY VESSEL DISCOVERS WARTIME WRECK
The wreck of the British vessel Empire Wold, which was being escorted by the Grimsby trawler Northern Reward, when it was sunk by a German U-boat in November 1944, has been found off Iceland. Its entire crew of 17 men, which included eight Americans, were lost. The Icelandic coastguard said the discovery was made by the fishery protection vessel Thor and although there is no evidence of a shipwreck in that area, it was decided to investigate further. The trawler Northern Reward, which had been converted into a wartime minesweeper, was part of a larger convoy which was attacked by the submarine U-300, which sank othjrb vessels including an Icelandic coastguard ship which had picked up British survivors.
BIG RISE IN ICELAND CATCHES
The total catch by Icelandic vessels during April was 146,742 tonnes, a 30 per cent increase on  April 2017.  The demersal catch was just over 49,000 tonnes, an increase of 23 per cent, which included a cod catch of 23,400 tonnes, a rise of 30 per cent on 12 months ago. The haddock haul was about the same as last year at 3,945 tonnes. The pelagic catch was nearly all blue-whiting , of which 94,000  tonnes where caught, 33 per cent higher. Shellfish catch was 1,607 tonnes compared with 824 tonnes in April 2018. In the 12 month period from May 2017 to April 2018 the total catch was just over 1,265,000 tonnes, an increase of 17 per cent  compared with the same period a year earlier, according to Statistics Iceland.