Iceland’s cod and haddock catch increased by 29 percent and 47 percent respectively last month, contributing to a significant rise in the overall demersal catch, according to new figures published by Statistics Iceland.
Fishermen landed 43,168 metric tons (MT) of demersal species in April, including 19,993 MT of cod and 3,639 MT of haddock.
In total, the Icelandic fishing fleet landed seafood totaling 104,176 MT last month, an increase of 39 percent compared with April 2016. As well as the increase in the demersal catch, there was a 60 percent jump in the pelagic catch, a 46 percent rise in the flatfish catch and 67 percent spike in the shellfish catch.
The April pelagic catch totaled 57,189 MT, flatfish totaled 1,764 MT and shellfish 2,053 MT.
In the last 12-months, Iceland landed 1.1 million MT of seafood, a decrease of 13 percent year-on-year. However, the demersal catch grew 6 percent to 450,586 MT, including 253,789 MT of cod (up 6 percent) and 41,735 MT of haddock (up 19 percent).
During the same period, the flatfish catch grew 46 percent to 25,664 MT and the shellfish catch grew by 18 percent to 12,015 MT. But the pelagic catch dropped 24 percent year-on-year to 645,838 MT, largely as a result of big drops in both the herring and capelin landings.
