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18th Apr 13

Managed by Chatham House

Financed by DEFRA

Iceland

Icelandic marine fisheries account for 2.1% of the worlds catches, making Iceland the 12th largest fishing nation. The sector is the second most important industry in Iceland employing approximately 9% of the workforce and representing 12% of total GDP in recent years and over 60% of the value of exported products.

Icelands fishing grounds are very productive with large amounts of redfish, herring, cod and capelin. The majority of landings from the national fleet are of pelagic species, followed by groundfish, although the latter are far more valuable; cod accounted for 12% of the total volume landed but 43% of the value. The remaining landings include herring, flatfish (mainly Greenland halibut), crustaceans (mainly shrimps) and molluscs (mainly scallops). The majority of the catch is landed by pelagic trawlers and purse seiners. Foreign vessels also land large quantities of mainly pelagic species in Iceland.

The most important export markets for Icelandic fish and fish products are in Europe, in particular the UK, Denmark and Spain. Japan is also a key market for frozen fish.

The exploitation of commercially important marine fish species is regulated under a system of tradable catch quotas allocated to individual vessels (individual transferable quotas, ITQs). A number of stocks, including cod and capelin, are managed under long-term management plans which set maximum and minimum limits on catches; however, over-estimation of the cod stocks in the 1990s and subsequent falling catch weights, led to the closure of important spawning areas and gear size restrictions in 2003.

Iceland is an active member of the North Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO), the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO) and the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC).

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Mr Paul Knapman
I have worked on IUU fishing related issues in the UK, Canada and the Baltic. I have been a Fisheries Officer, a Senior Fisheries Policy Advisor to a ...

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