The Icelandic fishing fleet landed 119,214 metric tons (MT) of seafood products last month, an increase of 4 percent compared with August 2015, according to the latest figures gathered by the Directorate of Fisheries and published by Statistics Iceland.
During the last 12-month period, Iceland landed less than 1.1 million MT of seafood, a decrease of 22 percent year-on-year, including a 38 percent reduction in its pelagic catch, which totaled 545,480 MT.
Within the pelagic category, the country’s herring landings were down 31 percent year-on-year to 107,686 MT, its capelin catch was down 71 percent to 101,089 MT, while its blue whiting and mackerel catch fell by 6 percent and 11 percent respectively to 189,338 MT and 147,351 MT.
There was, however, an improvement in demersal landings, which totaled 463,069 MT, up 7 percent year-on-year. Within this category, the cod catch increased 11 percent to 264,104 MT, the redfish catch increased 13 percent to 64,819 MT and the haddock catch increased 7 percent to 40,576 MT. But the saithe catch dropped 5 percent to 49,633 MT.
Iceland’s flatfish and shellfish catches have also grown over the last 12 months, with landings amounting to 25,156 MT and 12,799 MT respectively.
Last month’s demersal catch increased by 28 percent compared with August 2015 to 33,278 MT, thanks largely to a 41 percent increase in fishermen’s cod landings, which totaled 17,000 MT.
Statistic Iceland has also reported that its fishing fleet landed seafood with a total value of ISK 142 billion (USD 1.2 billion, EUR 1.1 billion) in the 12 months from June 2015 to May 2016, a decrease of 5.6 percent year-on-year. In this period, the value of the country’s demersal and flatfish catches increased by 3.2 percent and 35.5 percent, respectively, but its pelagic catch’s value decreased by 34.5 percent.
