Iceland’s fishing fleet landed a total 115,477 metric tons (MT) of fish and shellfish last month, some 30 percent more than in April 2020, with increases seen across all of the country’s main fisheries categories.
According to preliminary data gathered by the country’s Directorate of Fisheries, April’s demersal catch increased by 7 percent year-on-year to 47,491 MT, cod landings remained on par with the corresponding month of 2020 at 23,123 MT, haddock was up 17 percent to 5,211 MT, saithe increased 10 percent to 5,630 MT, and the redfish volume climbed 8 percent to 4,988 MT.
There was a very small increase in Iceland’s flatfish catch to 2,050 MT, while its shellfish landings rocketed up by 247 percent to 917 MT.
Offering the country’s largest April-on-April volume increase, the pelagic catch totaled 65,013 MT, up 55 percent. This rise was almost entirely attributable to a 56 percent jump in the blue whiting landings at 65,012 MT. Also within this category, the mackerel volume lifted by 1 percent to 208 MT. No herring or capelin were landed.
The authority also totaled the combined May 2020 to April 2021 catch at more than 1.1 million MT, a rise of 15 percent year-on-year. This increase included a 3 percent increase in the demersal species group at 479,233 MT, a pelagic volume that was 26 percent higher than in the previous 12 months at 595,185 MT, 24 percent more flatfish at 25,536 MT, but a 34 percent fall in the shellfish landed with an overall 5,813 MT.
Iceland’s wild-capture fisheries landings in 2020 amounted to a total 1,020,594 MT, which was 3 percent less than in the previous year. There were declines in the landings of demersal down 4 percent to 463,175 MT; pelagic, down 1 percent to 529,427 MT; and shellfish, down 51 percent to 4,973 MT; while the flatfish catch increased by 4 percent to 23,013 MT.
Photo courtesy of Valka
