The fishing fleet in Iceland landed a total 49,030 metric tons (MT) of fish and seafood last month, some 21 percent less than in June 2020, with decreases seen across every fisheries category except shellfish.
According to preliminary data gathered by the country’s Directorate of Fisheries, June’s demersal catch decreased by 1 percent year-on-year to 34,748 MT, with cod landings falling 8 percent to 19,609 MT, haddock climbing 42 percent to 3,790 MT, and saithe increasing 14 percent to 5,326 MT. The redfish volume fell 15 percent to 3,516 MT.
Iceland’s flatfish catch decreased by 21 percent to 3,295 MT, while its shellfish landings climbed 17 percent to 639 MT.
Meanwhile, the country’s pelagic catch slumped 54 percent year-on-year to 10,348 MT, with the herring volume down 80 percent to just 351 MT, mackerel slipping 42 percent to 4,119 MT, and the blue whiting catch falling by 57 percent to 5,878 MT. No capelin was caught in June.
The authority also totaled the combined July 2020 through June 2021 catch at almost 1.08 million MT, a rise of 4 percent year-on-year. This increase included a 4 percent increase in the demersal species group at 482,937 MT, a pelagic volume that was 11 percent higher than in the preceding 12 months at 561,708 MT, 14 percent more flatfish at 24,585 MT, but a 26 percent fall in the shellfish landed with 6,104 MT.
The fleet caught some 239,204 MT of wild-capture fish and shellfish in the first-quarter of this year, generating a first-sales value of almost ISK 43.2 billion (USD 347.7 million, EUR 294.3 million), representing increases of 32 percent and 26 percent compared with the corresponding period of 2020.
The country’s Q1 2021 demersal landings increased by 10 percent year-on-year to 137,537 MT, with the value up 2 percent to ISK 32.1 billion (USD 258.7 million, EUR 219 million). Of these totals, cod accounted for 85,163 MT and ISK 22.2 billion (USD 177.8 million, EUR 150.6 million).
Also in the quarter, its pelagic catch totaled 95,452 MT, up 81 percent on a year previously. This was worth ISK 8.9 billion (USD 72.7 million, EUR 61.6 million), a rise of 510 percent. The flatfish catch increased 88 percent in volume to 5,433 MT, earning ISK 2 billion (USD 16.2 million, EUR 13.7 million), a jump of 71 percent, while shellfish landings were up 12 percent to 646 MT, valued at ISK 153 million (USD 1.2 million, EUR 1 million), up 14 percent.
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