The total volume of fish and shellfish landed by Iceland’s fishing fleet decreased by 50% or almost 110,000 tonnes in January, with a total 220,033 tonnes.
According to preliminary figures for January 2023 gathered by the country’s Directorate of Fisheries, there was a substantial fall in the volume of pelagic fish, while demersal, flatfish and shellfish landings all grew.
The month’s total pelagic volume slumped by 59% to 77,047 tonnes. This was mainly due to a 98% reduction in the capelin catch compared with January 2022, with the volume amounting to just 3,660 tonnes – down from 189,470 tonnes.
Also withing the category, the blue whiting and herring volumes amounted to 72,022 tonnes and 1,365 tonnes respectively. No mackerel catches were recorded for the month.
Within the demersal category, which amounted to 31,994 tonnes – a 7% rise versus January 2022 – cod landings decreased by 8% to 19,565 tonnes, and the redfish catch slipped 1% to 2,119 tonnes. However, the volumes of haddock (5,446 tonnes), and saithe (3,265 tonnes) were up by 7% and 33% respectively.
Iceland’s flatfish catch increased by 141% to 1,125 tonnes, while its shellfish landings grew 127% to 178 tonnes.
The Directorate of Fisheries’ data also found that the February 2022 to January 2023 catch totalled 1,308,068 tonnes, which was 1% less than in the previous 12-month period. There were decreases in the month’s demersal (-6% to 436,247 tonnes) and flatfish (-7% to 22,160 tonnes) species categories, while total pelagic landings grew by 2% to 843,326 tonnes.
There was no growth in the shellfish catch, which amounted to 6,241 tonnes.
