Fishing gear
Fishing gear
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This figure shows the total catch by Icelandic boats by major fishing gear since 1992 Source: Statistics Iceland, weight reports |
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The value of the catch by Icelandic boats in million Icelandic krónur by fishing gear in 2007 Source: Statistics Iceland |
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The Icelandic fishing fleet is technologically advanced and uses a variety of fishing techniques and gears. The range of fishing gears include handline, longline, gillnet, bottom trawl and Danish seine for groundfish and flatfish. Purse seine and pelagic (or midwater) trawl for pelagics and various types of dredges and trawls for invertebrates.
Purse seines and quite recently pelagic trawls catch the highest amounts as they are fishing for a few but very abundant pelagic fish species. This catch is usually around 2/3 of the total catch. However, this is not reflected in the value of the catch as the value of pelagics is low compared with groundfish. The fishing gear that catches the highest value is the bottom trawl with 40%-50% of the value of the total catch. The second most valuable catch is from longlines. With the exception of lobster, fisheries for invertebrates are quite low in both value and catch amount. However, valuable scallop and especially shrimp fisheries have recently collapsed or declined.
Other types of fishing gear
Traps or pots are rarely used in Icelandic fisheries. Currently they are only used in freshwater to catch eels for subsistence and in the ocean to catch whelk commercially. From 1985 to 1987 traps were also used to catch spider crab and nephrops lobster, but were discontinued. Low scale experimental trap fisheries for cod have been conducted but largely proved unsuccessful.
Other fishing gear types used in Iceland are few and used only in very special cases. Harpoons are used to hunt whales and guns to hunt seals and seabirds. The hunt for these is discussed in more detail in the chapter on marine mammals and seabirds The simplest fishing gear used in Iceland is the human hand, used to collect seabird eggs and chicks, edible kelp and mussels on the seashore, and by divers to collect sea urchins, scallops and other benthic invertebrates.
The table below shows the main types of fishing gear used in Icelandic waters and the catch (t) and value in $1,000 in 2007 (rate used 80 ISK = $1).
| 2003 | 2007 | % change | |||||
| Gear | Species | Tonnes | 1,000 ISK | Tonnes | 1,000 ISK | Tonnes | 1,000 ISK |
| Longline | Groundfish | 80,622 | 8,414,425 | 117,669 | 15,259,820 | 46% | 81% |
| Gillnet | Groundfish | 45,386 | 6,469,138 | 31,167 | 5,196,376 | -31% | -20% |
| Handline | Groundfish | 19,155 | 2,070,151 | 6,049 | 820,236 | -68% | -60% |
| Danish seine | Ground-, flatfish | 34,936 | 3,915,427 | 32,831 | 4,794,393 | -6% | 22% |
| Bottom trawl | Ground-, flatfish | 269,918 | 26,891,712 | 276,492 | 36,400,259 | 2% | 35% |
| Pelagic trawl | Pelagics | 966,756 | 11,344,422 | 510,277 | 9,936,569 | -47% | -12% |
| Nephrops trawl | Lobster | 5,152 | 856,716 | 4,233 | 945,071 | -18% | 10% |
| Purse seine | Pelagics | 512,583 | 3,949,930 | 408,758 | 6,436,511 | -20% | 63% |
| Shrimp trawl | Shrimp | 28,997 | 3,211,055 | 2,199 | 249,283 | -92% | -92% |
| Scallop dredge | Scallop | 789 | 30,392 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Shellfish dregde | Ocean quahog | 14,431 | 49,767 | 4,620 | 29,570 | -68% | -41% |
| Whelk trap | Whelk | 0 | 0 | 554 | 26,911 | ||
| Other | Various | 821 | 74,547 | 868 | 156,480 | 6% | 110% |
| Total | 1,979,546 | 67,277,682 | 1,395,717 | 80,251,479 | -29% | 19% |
Hörður Sævaldsson / Hreiðar Þór Valtýsson University of Akureyri
