Iceland’s fishing fleet caught a total 77,902 metric tons (MT) of seafood last month, an increase of 1 percent compared with November 2016, with a larger demersal catch offseting declines in the pelagic and flatfish categories.
According to the latest figures gathered by the Directorate of Fisheries and published by Statistics Iceland, November’s total demersal landings increased by 12 percent year-on-year to 44,188 MT, with cod accounting for 26,719 MT (on par with November 2016) and haddock up 9 percent to 3,474 MT. Within the category, saithe and redfish recorded the highest levels of growth – rising 107 percent and 27 percent respectively to 5,697 MT and 6,426 MT.
Shellfish was the only other category to record any growth last month, with the catch up 35 percent to 735 MT.
The pelagic landings, meanwhile, decreased by 12 percent year-on-year to 31,629 MT, with herring accounting for 23,888 MT (down 25 percent from November 2016) and 7,741 MT of blue whiting (up 98 percent).
Flatfish landings also registered a 12 percent decrease to 1,350 MT.
During the last 12-month period, the Icelandic fleet landed 1,166,454 MT of seafood, an increase of 10 percent year-on-year. However, only the pelagic category registered any growth – up 27 percent to 711,342 MT. For December 2016 through November 2017, Iceland’s demersal catch was down 8 percent year-on-year to 423,033 MT, its flatfish landings fell 11 percent to 21,768 MT and its shellfish total was down 20 percent to 10,276 MT.
In the calendar year 2016, Iceland’s catch achieved a total value of ISK 133 billion (USD 1.3 billion, EUR 1.1 billion), which represented a decrease of more than 12 percent compared with the previous year. This was achieved on a total volume of fish and shellfish of 1,067,000 MT, which was 252,000 MT less than in 2015.
