General information
Cod Gadus morhua is widely dispersed in Icelandic waters, with higher abundance in north-western, northern, and north-eastern part of the shelf. Cod is considered demersal with moderately wide depth distribution which can vary from depths of few meters down to 600 m, occasionally even deeper. Adult cod has not much preference regarding bottom structure and can be found on various substrates; however, a large share of the cod juveniles prefer moderately sheltered, shallow kelp and seagrass environments. The ideal sea temperature for cod is around 4-7°C, nevertheless the temperature limits for this species are somewhat wider, and a significant proportion of the catch is taken where temperature is less than 2°C. Cod spawns all around Iceland by smaller regional spawning components, however the main spawning areas are situated in the south, southwest and west. Spawning starts early in the spring (March-April) on the main spawning grounds in the warmer waters in the south. In the past, spawning started later on in the colder waters in the north, but in recent years spawning time in the north has advanced significantly. North- and eastward pelagic egg- and larval drift mainly occurs clockwise to the nursery grounds situated in the north and north-eastern area. The adult stock takes feeding migrations to the deeper waters in the north-west and south-east, but part stays in the shallow domains to feed. Cod is the most important exploited groundfish species in Iceland.
Fishery
Due to wide spatial distribution of cod in Icelandic waters, the fishing grounds are scattered around the shelf and partially divided by gear type (Figure 5, Figure 6, Figure 7). Demersal trawl is the main fishing gear (Table 1, Figure 5). Main fishing grounds for demersal trawl are situated offshore in deeper relatively cold waters to the north-west, northeast, and east of the island. In recent years, the spatial distribution of demersal trawl fishery has been gradually contracting and aggregating at the previously mentioned trawl fishery hotspots (Figure 5). Longline accounts for the next largest portion of the catch in the cod fisheries and is widely distributed around the Icelandic shelf, with lowest reported catch in the south and southeast coast (Figure 6). The distribution pattern of the catches remains consistent between the years with occasional hotspots. Cod fisheries of the remaining fishing fleet, i.e. gillnets, demersal seine and jiggers, are widely distributed, but mainly take place in shallow waters (Figure 7).
Spatial distribution of the cod fishery has been relatively stable for the past years (Figure 8). Changes in depth and spatial distribution (Figure 3 and Figure 4) are partly caused by changes in gear composition (Figure 2). For cod, the average depth in bottom trawl is 230 m, longline 160 m, but 80 m for demersal seine and gillnets. Mixed fisheries considerations do also affect spatial distribution of the fisheries. For example, cod TAC (Total Allowable Catch) was 50-80% of the cod TAC from 2003-2008 leading to increased fisheries in areas where cod was abundant. For comparison, TAC for cod has been 15-20% of the cod TAC in recent years.
Cod catches increased from under 200 þúsund tonnum to 250 þúsund tonnes frin 1994 to 1999 (Figure 2). Over the next 10 years cod catches steadily declined and reach a low point in 2008, at about 150 þúsund tonnum. Catches increased again and and have fluctuated more recently within 200 - 250 thousand tonnes. Historically, gillnets and bottom trawl were the most important gear with bottom trawls seldom accounting for less than 40% of the catches. The proportion grew from 45% in 2010-2016 to roughly 55% more recently. Gill nets accounted for 20% of catches before 2001 but thereafter declined to around 7% more recently. Most of the bottom trawl catches were taken in the northwest, but gillnet catches were important in the south and west during spawning time. The share of gillnets has declined continuously in recent decades, while that of longlines has increased (Figure 2). Longline fisheries have the widest spatial distribution of the fleets targeting cod (Figure 6), although most of the catches come from the west and northwest. The proportion of catches caught by longlines before 2003 was close to 20%, which grew to 35% during the years 2005 - 2016. Introduction of large longliners with automatic baiting in recent decades has expanded the fishing area of longliners to deeper waters. Demersal seines have steadily accounted for roughly 5-7.5% of cod catches. In some areas, especially in the northwest and southeast, cod can be found in dense schools in certain hotspots, a fact exploited by captains when they want to catch large amount of cod in short time, e.g. just before landing. Condition and size of cod in different areas is also an issue regarding fishing areas, but all those factors are weighed against proximity to landing harbour.
In 2023, more than half of the cod catch was taken in bottom trawl (54%, around 26% on longlines, 6% by gillnets, 6% by jiggers, and 7% by demersal seine. The largest proportion of the catch in recent years was taken in the western and northwestern area, followed by the northeast and southwest areas. Cod was caught at similar depth as in previous years, but perhaps slightly more shallow (Figure 2).
The number of vessels accounting for 95% of the annual catch of cod in Icelandic waters reduced from around 1000 to 750 vessels in 1994-1999 (Figure 1). This reduction occurred despite annual catch increasing by almost 100 thousand tonnes. In 1999-2008, the number of vessels accounting for 95% of the cod catch reduced with reduced total catches to about 400 vessels. Since 2009 the number of vessels has remained relatively constant between 250 and 500, although the most recent years are marked by having the lowest numbers of vessels. This decline is noticeable in all the fleets (Table 1).
| Year | Nr. Demersal Seine | Nr. Other | Nr. Long Line | Nr. Bottom Trawl | Demersal Seine | Other | Long Line | Bottom Trawl | Total catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 133 | 827 | 530 | 183 | 14930 | 17623 | 49946 | 103558 | 186057 |
| 2001 | 106 | 766 | 515 | 160 | 17015 | 17002 | 47172 | 99071 | 180260 |
| 2002 | 101 | 724 | 450 | 155 | 13584 | 19305 | 42405 | 87885 | 163179 |
| 2003 | 107 | 721 | 461 | 147 | 13375 | 16026 | 44654 | 88422 | 162477 |
| 2004 | 103 | 722 | 470 | 135 | 14228 | 14840 | 57397 | 95769 | 182234 |
| 2005 | 98 | 604 | 463 | 134 | 12770 | 8106 | 69444 | 84018 | 174338 |
| 2006 | 93 | 509 | 447 | 126 | 10358 | 5859 | 71037 | 82417 | 169671 |
| 2007 | 97 | 473 | 425 | 123 | 8711 | 4397 | 58943 | 71499 | 143550 |
| 2008 | 92 | 427 | 370 | 113 | 8441 | 4151 | 53843 | 58172 | 124607 |
| 2009 | 81 | 798 | 336 | 113 | 10370 | 8190 | 61005 | 79667 | 159232 |
| 2010 | 75 | 1008 | 286 | 111 | 8296 | 9372 | 57491 | 75609 | 150768 |
| 2011 | 65 | 1061 | 290 | 110 | 9106 | 12665 | 57711 | 73538 | 153020 |
| 2012 | 74 | 1099 | 305 | 118 | 9989 | 13417 | 67777 | 85265 | 176448 |
| 2013 | 71 | 1054 | 297 | 110 | 10092 | 15237 | 74835 | 101453 | 201617 |
| 2014 | 65 | 1012 | 292 | 110 | 10407 | 16355 | 77807 | 95830 | 200399 |
| 2015 | 67 | 943 | 266 | 103 | 11938 | 13957 | 79244 | 103530 | 208669 |
| 2016 | 60 | 956 | 246 | 99 | 15930 | 15299 | 84509 | 111016 | 226754 |
| 2017 | 67 | 832 | 221 | 94 | 15398 | 14945 | 75244 | 117891 | 223478 |
| 2018 | 63 | 813 | 201 | 83 | 15818 | 16221 | 78316 | 135030 | 245385 |
| 2019 | 44 | 794 | 190 | 81 | 14181 | 13592 | 78326 | 135661 | 241760 |
| 2020 | 43 | 839 | 158 | 81 | 16198 | 15884 | 68103 | 146788 | 246973 |
| 2021 | 53 | 841 | 145 | 87 | 17695 | 16014 | 69460 | 140773 | 243942 |
| 2022 | 60 | 850 | 120 | 83 | 16496 | 15172 | 62613 | 124950 | 219231 |
| 2023 | 61 | 867 | 99 | 81 | 15958 | 13286 | 54213 | 117211 | 200668 |
Landing trends
Iceland has been catching cod since the settlement age, for both domestic use and export. Foreigners, like the French, Dutch, and British, contributed significantly to the catch. Given Iceland’s population at the time, fishing was a substantial activity. In the 7th decade of the 19th century, the catch averaged around 60 thousand tons, a number typical for a longer time span.
Landings of cod in Icelandic waters have been historically high since industrial fishing began, although a productivity shift in the 1980s has led to relatively less recruitment and therefore, lower sustainable yield in the following decades. Landings were usually around 300 to 450 thousand tonnes prior to World War II and later during 1950 to 1990. Around the world wars, foreigners stopped fishing in Icelandic water but Icelandic catch did not change much. In the 20th century, foreigners took a large part of the catch until Icelanders extended their exclusive economic zone to 200 miles in 1976.
The productivity of the stock, which includes recruitment and migration from Greenland, determines the overall catch per period. Large cod migrations from Greenland to Iceland occurred in 1930s and again in 1953. During WWII, fishing effort decreased, resulting in increased stock.
In the years 1955 - 1990, the catch decreased steadily, short-term variablility is related to variability in recrutment and immigrations. After 1992 has the catch was on average about 218 thousand tons (148-270). Reduced catch is caused by poor recruitment, but the size of the cohorts of 1986 and younger is estimated about 66% of the size of cohorts 1955-1985. Possibly the share of immigrations from Greenland is underestimated in this period. Landings in 2023 amounted to 217157 tonnes. Foreign landings account for a small portion of this (2358.402 in 2023), attributable to bilateral agreements allowing Norwegian and Faroese vessels to land a small amount of cod and other demersal species (Figure 9).
Data available
In general, sampling is considered good from commercial catches from the main gears (demersal seines, longlines, gillnets and trawls). The sampling does seem to cover the spatial and seasonal distribution of catches (see Figure 10 and Figure 11). In 2020, sampling effort was reduced substantially, on-board sampling in particular, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this reduction in sampling continued through 2022, sampling operations have returned to normal and current samples are considered to be sufficiently representative of the fishing operations.
Landings and discards
All landings in 5a before 1982 are derived from the STATLANT database, and also all foreign landings in 5a to 2005. The years between 1982 and 1993 landings by Icelandic vessels were collected by the Fisheries Association of Iceland (Fiskifélagið). Landings after 1994 by Icelandic vessels are given by the Icelandic Directorate of Fisheries. Landings of foreign vessels (mainly Norwegian and Faroese vessels) are given by the Icelandic Coast Guard prior to 2014 but after 2014 this are also recorded by the Directorate. Discarding is banned by law in the Icelandic demersal fishery. Measures in the management system such as converting quota share from one species to another are used by the fleet to a large extent and this is thought to discourage discarding in mixed fisheries. In addition to prevent high grading and quota mismatch the fisheries are allowed to land fish that will not be accounted for in the allotted quota, provided that the proceedings when the landed catch is sold will go to the Ministry funds. A more detailed description of the management system can be found on https://www.responsiblefisheries.is/seafood-industry/fisheries-management.
Length compositions
The length distribution of landed catch has shifted towards larger cod in the last ten years (Figure 13). The bulk of the length measurements is from the main fleet segments, i.e. trawls, longlines, gillnets and demersal seine (Table 2). The number of available length measurements by gear has fluctuated in recent years in relation to the changes in the fleet composition.
