The total volume of fish and shellfish landed by Iceland’s fishing fleet last year increased by 10 percent or almost 107,000 metric tons (MT) compared with 2016 to 1,176,545 MT, according to provisional figures gathered by the country’s Directorate of Fisheries.
Driving the improvement were much larger catches of capelin and blue whiting, which amounted to 196,832 MT (up 95 percent) and 228,928 MT of blue whiting (up 22 percent) respectively.
Overall, the pelagic catch climbed 24 percent to 715,219 MT, with herring also rising 6 percent to 124,270 MT, but being partially offset by a 3 percent lower mackerel catch at 165,188 MT.
There were reductions in the country’s demersal, flatfish and shellfish catches.
Demersal landings for the year totaled 428,960 MT, a decrease of 6 percent. Within this sector, cod fell 4 percent to 252,751 MT, haddock dropped 6 percent to 36,193 MT, saithe was down 1 percent to 49,349 MT and the redfish volume slipped 8 percent to 58,547 MT.
Flatfish and shellfish landings, meanwhile, totaled 21,926 MT and 10,406 MT respectively. These volumes represented decreases of 8 percent and 18 percent.
