The total catch landed by Iceland’s fishing fleet last year fell 19 percent or 247,000 metric tons (MT) compared to 2015 to 1,069,595 MT, according to provisional figures gathered by the country’s Directorate of Fisheries.
The decrease has mostly been attributed to a considerably lower capelin catch of 101,089 MT for the year, down from 352,866 MT in 2015.
Overall, the pelagic catch declined 32 percent to 575,921 MT, with only small increases posted for herring and mackerel. Catches of these two species amounted to 117,398 MT and 170,514 MT.
Blue whiting at 186,915 MT was the fleet’s main pelagic species last year, but this was 13 percent less than in 2015.
There were, however, increases in the country’s demersal, flatfish and shellfish catches.
Demersal landings for the year totaled 456,929 MT, an increase of 4 percent. Within this sector, cod increased 8 percent to 264,355 MT, saithe was up 3 percent to 49,631 MT and redfish climbed 9 percent to 63,651 MT. But there was a 6 percent fall in the haddock landings, which totaled 38,580 MT.
Flatfish and shellfish landings, meanwhile, totaled 23,939 MT and 12,720 MT respectively. These volumes represented increases of 2 percent and 26 percent between the two years.
