Northern shrimp

Scientific: Pandalus borealis. English: Northern shrimp, deep-water shrimp, cold-water shrimp, pink shrimp, northern red shrimp. Icelandic: Stóri kampalampi, rækja. For more languages see the Marine Animal Dictionary.

Biology and distribution

Northern shrimp is a sub-arctic species, widespread in the northern parts of the North Atlantic and the North Pacific Oceans. In Icelandic waters it is found from the southwest coast of Iceland and along the west, north and east coasts, most often at depths of 50-700 m. It is most common in offshore waters below 300 m depth. High concentrations can also occur at much shallower depth in bays and fjords off the north coast.

The northern shrimp has opportunistic feeding habit. It scavenges on the bottom sediments, is a predator on small benthic invertebrates and also seems to be able to filter-feed during migrations to the water column in the night.

The shrimp has a remarkable life cycle. At sexual maturity it first becomes a male but later changes its gender and turns female. This happens at the age of 2-6 years in different waters, depending on environmental conditions, mostly sea temperature.

Catch and fishing methods

The northern shrimp is the only commercially exploited shrimp species in Iceland. Sometimes a very small part of the catch is a close relative, Pandalus montagui. However, they are never separated in catch reports. The shrimp fishery in Icelandic waters is by two distinct fisheries on three separate stocks, the inshore, offshore, and Dhorn Bank stock between Iceland and Greenland. Scientific recommendations and TACs are based the on assessment of different stocks, some of which are quite localized, especially in the inshore fisheries. The size of the shrimp in catches is often measured as numbers per kg, the offshore shrimp numbers 100-300 per kg, while the inshore shrimp is smaller, numbering 250-400 per kg.

Inshore shrimp is fished by small local boats in bays and fjords in northern and western Iceland. Experimental fisheries for inshore shrimp began in 1924 but failed. The second attempt began in 1939 and some amount has been fished annually since. Records are, however, only available since 1955, but fisheries were low before. Most of the inshore stocks have collapsed in recent years due to increased predation by cod.

The offshore and Dhorn bank stocks are fished by larger trawlers in deep waters north of Iceland. Experimental fishery for offshore shrimp began about 1976 but was low until 1983. The offshore stocks have also declined considerably since 1997 due to increased predation by the cod stock.

This was of major consequence as the fishery declined from the maximum of 75,923 tonnes in 1995, then the second most important fishery in Iceland, to 858 tonnes in 2006. The shrimp and cod fisheries are thus linked, as the cod is the most important predator on shrimp.

In the past shrimp has been caught all year round by shrimp trawl, but offshore the best fishing was traditionally in the summer months.

Recently Icelandic shrimp boats have also been fishing in international waters on the Flemish Cap off Canada and in the waters around Spitsbergen in the Barents Sea. The Flemish Cap shrimp fishery is managed by NAFO on the basis of effort limitations. The Icelandic authorites protested this form of management and advocated individual catch quotas.

Stock status (from the Marine Research institute)

In recent years, the inshore fishery for Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) has been closed, with the exception of the Snæfellsnes area and Arnarfjörður. The MRI recommends a preliminary TAC of 450 t for the Snæfellsnes area in the quota year 2010/2011. Furthermore MRI recommends a continued closure of other areas until surveys have shown a significant increase in abundance of Northern shrimp. In 2009, the offshore catch of Northern shrimp was 4.122 t compared to its highest level of 65.000 t between 1995 and 1997. MRI recommends a TAC of 7.000 t for Northern shrimp in the offshore areas (excluding the Dohrnbank area) in the quota year 2010/2011.

Processing and markets

Currently most of the shrimp catch is iced at sea and then processed further and after landing. When shrimp catches were higher, a considerable proportion was also frozen at sea. After landing, the shrimp is cooked and peeled by machines. A small part used to be canned but most of the catch is frozen. Most of the shrimp catch is exported to the United Kingdom but a considerable quantity is also exported to Spain.

References and further information

References: (Gunnarsson et al., 1998), (Jónsdóttir et al., 1998), (Skúladóttir & Pétursson, 1999), (Skúladottir, 2000), (Garcia, 2006b).

For full citation and further information on the main species in general see this page

Hreiðar Þór Valtýsson, University of Akureyri