Capelin surveys this week in line with previous survey

The pelagic fishing vessels Polar Ammassak and Aðalsteinn Jónsson have, in cooperation with the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (MFRI), been conducting capelin surveys southeast and east of Iceland from Monday to Friday this week.

The aim was to repeat the measurements of the main capelin migration in that area to compare to the measurements from the week before. Both vessels covered the entire area along different routes and therefore these are two independent measurements of the abundance there.

The preliminary results of the measurements indicate a slightly lower estimate of the fishable biomass than in the week before. It is therefore clear that the results will lead to an unchanged advice of no capelin fishing for the fishing season 2024/25. MFRI plans to go on RV Árni Friðriksson to search for capelin north of Iceland around next weekend.

The figure to left shows the tracks of Aðalsteinn Jónsson (blue) and Polar Ammassak (pink) 27-31 January 2025,
where the perpendicularly lines with the tracks represents capelin density. The figure to right indicate with
colour-scale the capelin density.