Iceland’s fishing fleet landed 1.3 million metric tons (MT) of seafood in 2015, an increase of 21.8 percent compared with the previous year, according to new figures published by Statistics Iceland.
While the country’s total demersal catch grew by a modest 2.7 percent to 437,711 MT, with increases in its cod, haddock, saithe and redfish landings, the vastly improved total catch was largely due to a 35.3 percent increase in pelagic landings.
The fleet landed 845,415 MT of pelagic fish last year, including 352,866 MT of capelin, which was 214.5 percent more than in 2014. It also landed 23,427 MT of flatfish, an increase of 21.5 percent.
The only category to post a drop in harvest was the shellfish sector, which saw landings fall 6.6 percent to 10,069 MT.
Iceland earned ISK 225.1 billion (EUR 1.6 billion; USD 1.2 billion) from its marine product exports in the first 11 months of last year, a rise of 8.9 percent year-on-year.
