PHOTO
Fishing boat Ichi leaves Otago Harbour yesterday morning for a day at sea.
Some larger fishing vessels are at present lighting up the night sky off the Dunedin coast as they chase a large school of fish between the city and Taieri Mouth.
There are five vessels sitting between 20km and 30km offshore.
They are the 82m fishing trawler Tokatu (Nelson), the 104m fishing vessel Profesor Mykhaylo Aleksandrov (Nelson), the 104m factory trawler Mainstream (Lyttelton), the 59m fishing vessel Fortunui (Timaru) and the 104m fishing vessel Irvinga (Lyttelton).
Otago harbourmaster Steve Rushbrook said the vessels had been off the coast for about a week.
A harbour control spokesman said they were fishing for Sealord, Sanford or other independent New Zealand fishing companies.