Iceland’s fishing fleet landed 119,366 metric tons (MT) of fish and shellfish last month, a 38 percent jump compared to the October 2020 catch, with increases in pelagic landings offsetting declines in all the nation’s other main seafood categories.
According to preliminary data gathered by the country’s Directorate of Fisheries, October’s pelagic catch was up 88 percent year-on-year to 83,613 MT. This total included an 83 percent spike in herring – to 65,951 MT – and a 109 percent rise in blue whiting at 17,649 MT.
Just 13 MT of mackerel was caught, and no capelin were landed last month.
In the demersal sector, landings totaled 34,014 MT, 15 percent less than in October 2020. The Icelandic cod catch fell 23 percent year-on-year to 18,271 MT, while haddock and redfish volumes both fell 17 percent to 4,911 MT and 3,747 MT, respectively. Iceland's saithe volume caught climbed 40 percent to 5,908 MT.
There was also a decrease of 26 percent in Iceland’s flatfish catch to 1,433 MT, while its shellfish landings slumped 41 percent to 306 MT.
The authority also totaled the combined November 2020 to October 2021 catch at more than 1.07 million MT, a rise of 6 percent year-on-year. This increase included a 2 percent increase in the demersal species group at 470,762 MT, a pelagic volume that was 9 percent higher than in the previous 12 months at 570,487 MT, 8 percent more flatfish at 24,604 MT, and a 16 percent lift in the shellfish landed, reaching 6,473 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 volumes of demersal fish, down 4 percent to 463,175 MT; pelagics, down 1 percent to 529,427 MT; and shellfish landings, down 51 percent to 4,973 MT; while Iceland's flatfish catch increased by 4 percent to 23,013 MT.
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