The volume of fish and shellfish landed by Iceland’s fishing fleet increased by 11% or more than 12,400 tonnes in April 2023 to a total 126,253 tonnes, according to preliminary figures for the month gathered by the country’s Directorate of Fisheries.
The increase was mainly attributed to a large blue whiting catch of 88,308 tonnes, versus 65,191 tonnes in April 2022.
Consequently, last month’s total pelagic volume climbed 36% year-on-year to 88,342 tonnes. Aside from blue whiting, just 34 tonnes of mackerel was caught, while no herring or capelin catches were recorded for the month.
The demersal catch decreased 24% to 34,784 tonnes, with the cod volume slipping 24% to 17,642 tonnes, saithe down 66% to 3,006 tonnes and redfish falling 23% to 2,705 tonnes. The haddock catch climbed 22% to 5,440 tonnes.
Meanwhile, Iceland’s flatfish catch increased by 8% to 2,342 tonnes, and its shellfish landings shrank 19% to 785 tonnes.
The Directorate of Fisheries’ data also determined that the May 2022 to April 2023 catch totalled 1,382,006 tonnes, which was 7% less than in the previous 12-month period. There were decreases in the demersal (-6% to 419,707 tonnes), pelagic (-7% to 932,311 tonnes) and shellfish (-5% to 6,104 tonnes) species categories, while the total flatfish landings grew by 3% to 23,790 tonnes.
