The Icelandic fleet caught 140,873 metric tons (MT) of seafood last month, an increase of 4 percent compared with May 2017, with double-digit rises in the volumes of pelagic fish, flatfish and shellfish landed offsetting a 12-percent drop in the demersal catch, according to the latest preliminary figures issued by Statistics Iceland.
A total 45,257 MT of demersal species were landed in May, with cod accounting for 25,759 MT (-8 percent), haddock at 3,388 MT (-6 percent), saithe at 5,725 (-20 percent) and redfish at 5,294 MT (-20 percent). Other demersal landings amounted to 5,091 MT (-15 percent).
Pelagic landings for the month climbed by 14 percent year-on-year to 90,490 MT, which was driven by a 14-percent boost in the blue whiting catch at 90,355 MT.
At the same time, the shellfish catch increased by 11 percent to 1,527 MT and flatfish landings jumped by 31 percent to 3,599 MT.
Statistics Iceland also reported that the accumulated total catch for June 2017 through May 2018 decreased by 3 percent to less than 1.3 million MT, with landings of demersal species (475,728 MT), pelagic fish (758,988 MT) and shellfish (11,146 MT) falling by 5 percent, 2 percent and 19 percent respectively.
Totaling 25,785 MT, there was a 1-percent rise in the flatfish catch for the 12-month period.
