Iceland’s Marine Research Institute has recommended a 214 tonne nephrops quota for 2020, just enough for the state of the stock to be monitored.
This small quota is enough to allow the strength and distribution of nephrops to be monitored this year, although the recommendation is for the Jökudjúp and Lónsdjúp areas to be completely closed to fishing for nephrops to protect juveniles.
To further minimise fishing effort on nephrops areas, the Institute has proposed that trawling for groundfish should also be closed in certain areas of the Breiðamerkurdjúp, Hornafjarðardjúp and Lónsdjúp fishing grounds.
Last year the nephrops stock was judged to have shrunk by 20% compared to its 2106 state, while the density of nephrops burrows at 0.07 per m2 is the lowest recorded among the nephrops stocks that ICES advises on.
Indications are that recruitment to the nephrops stock are a a historical low and year classes since 2015 have been poor. With no increase in recruitment, the Institute predicts that the stock will continue to decline.
