General information
Icelandic haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) is fairly abundant in the coastal waters around Iceland and is mostly limited to the Icelandic continental shelf, while 0-group and juveniles from the stock are occasionally found in East Greenland waters (ICES area 14). Apart from this, larval drifts links with other regions have not been found. In addition, minimal catches have been reported in area 14 (maximum of less than 10 tons in 2016). The nearest area to Iceland where haddock is found in reasonable abundance are in shallow Faroese waters, which constitutes as a separate stock. The two regions are separated by a wide and relatively deep ridge, an area where reporting of haddock catches is nonexistent, both commercially and scientifically. Tagging studies (Jónsson 1996) conducted between 1953 and 1965 showed no migrations of juvenile and mature fish outside of Icelandic waters, as most recaptures took place in the area of tagging (or adjacent areas) and on the spawning grounds south of Iceland. Information about stock structure (metapopulation) of haddock in Icelandic waters is limited.
The species is found all around the Icelandic coast, principally in the relatively warm waters off the west and south coast, in shallow waters (10-200 m depth). Spawning has historically been limited to the southern waters. Haddock is also found off the north coast and in warm periods a large part of the immature fish have been found north of Iceland. In recent years a larger part of the fishable stock has been found off the north coast of Iceland than in the last two decades of the 20th century.
Fishery
The fishery for haddock in 5a has not changed substantially in recent years, but the total number of boats that account for 95% of the fishery has been declining steadily (Figure 1 and table 1). Around 250 longliners annually report catches of haddock, around 60 trawlers and 40 demersal seine boats. Most of Haddock in 5a is caught by trawlers and the proportion caught by that gear has decreased since 1995 from around 70% to 45% in 2017. However, for the last two years this proportion has increased slightly and is now around 60%. At the same time the proportion caught by longlines has increased from around 15% in 1995 - 2000 to 40 % in 2011–2023. Catches in demersal seine have varied less and have been at around 15% of Icelandic catches of Haddock in 5a. Currently less than 2% of catches are taken by other vessel types, but historically up to 10 % of total catches were by gillnetters, but since 2000 these catches have been low (Figure 2). Most of the haddock caught in 5a by Icelandic vessels is caught at depths less than 200 m (Figure 3). The main fishing grounds for Haddock in 5a, as observed from logbooks, are in the south, southwestern and western part of the Icelandic shelf (Figure 4 and Figure 5). The main trend in the spatial distribution of haddock catches in 5a according to logbook entries is the increased proportion of catches caught in the north and northeast.
Year | Nr. Bottom Trawl | Nr. Other | Nr. Danish Seine | Nr. Long Line | Bottom Trawl | Other | Danish Seine | Long Line | Total catch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | 164 | 504 | 117 | 479 | 23300 | 1740 | 3101 | 13089 | 41230 |
2001 | 146 | 631 | 91 | 447 | 22034 | 2050 | 3036 | 11982 | 39102 |
2002 | 144 | 548 | 91 | 417 | 30377 | 1990 | 3596 | 13638 | 49601 |
2003 | 136 | 550 | 96 | 435 | 36239 | 1664 | 4804 | 17284 | 59991 |
2004 | 131 | 656 | 95 | 449 | 50722 | 1787 | 8095 | 23198 | 83802 |
2005 | 126 | 488 | 90 | 449 | 53046 | 1573 | 10493 | 30767 | 95879 |
2006 | 116 | 416 | 93 | 436 | 45968 | 1217 | 12709 | 36237 | 96131 |
2007 | 109 | 345 | 94 | 407 | 57033 | 1080 | 12869 | 37199 | 108181 |
2008 | 102 | 311 | 91 | 362 | 51228 | 944 | 16457 | 33051 | 101680 |
2009 | 98 | 448 | 81 | 335 | 39078 | 608 | 15182 | 26571 | 81439 |
2010 | 94 | 623 | 67 | 279 | 29341 | 475 | 10138 | 23916 | 63870 |
2011 | 95 | 630 | 54 | 278 | 20718 | 473 | 6866 | 21175 | 49232 |
2012 | 98 | 699 | 56 | 289 | 20469 | 473 | 6048 | 18722 | 45712 |
2013 | 95 | 702 | 65 | 282 | 18829 | 398 | 4955 | 19197 | 43379 |
2014 | 84 | 654 | 47 | 283 | 13438 | 329 | 3776 | 15598 | 33141 |
2015 | 83 | 607 | 50 | 257 | 17337 | 360 | 4327 | 16432 | 38456 |
2016 | 82 | 580 | 53 | 237 | 17045 | 321 | 4456 | 14927 | 36749 |
2017 | 80 | 531 | 53 | 210 | 16456 | 343 | 4539 | 14447 | 35785 |
2018 | 71 | 494 | 58 | 194 | 26639 | 336 | 5585 | 15190 | 47750 |
2019 | 69 | 493 | 43 | 183 | 35947 | 302 | 6237 | 14650 | 57136 |
2020 | 73 | 536 | 42 | 149 | 32005 | 278 | 5079 | 16189 | 53551 |
2021 | 82 | 532 | 46 | 141 | 35961 | 264 | 5338 | 14411 | 55974 |
2022 | 73 | 513 | 57 | 114 | 39003 | 243 | 3929 | 13640 | 56815 |
2023 | 76 | 607 | 60 | 96 | 44514 | 311 | 6560 | 17427 | 68812 |
Landing trends
Landings of Icelandic haddock in 2023 are estimated to have been 70595 tonnes, see Figure 6. The landings in division 5a. have decreased from 100 thous. tonnes between 2005–2008, which historically was very near the maximum levels observed in the 1960’s, to the current level which is slightly lower than observed between 1975 to early 2000’s.
Foreign vessel landings were a considerable proportion of the landings, but since the expansion of the EEZ landings of foreign vessels are negligible. Currently most of the foreign catch is caught by Faeroese vessels, which in last year was 1750 tonnes, while Norwegian vessels land considerably less haddock.
Data available
In general sampling is considered good from commercial catches from the main gears (demersal seines, longlines and trawls). The sampling does seem to cover the spatial and seasonal distribution of catches (see Figure 7 and Figure 8). In 2020 sampling effort was reduced substantially, on-board sampling in particular, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However the reduced sampling during this period is considered to be sufficiently representative of the fishing operations and thus not considered to substantially affect the stock assessment. The sampling effort has since increased to near pre-pandemic levels.
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. Based on annual discards estimates since 2001, discard rates in the Icelandic fishery for haddock due to highgrading are estimated very low in recent years (<3% in either numbers or weight, see MRI (2016) for further details) while historically discards may have been substantial in the early 1990s. 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 Fisheries Project Fund (Verkefnasjóður sjávarútvegsins).
Length compositions
The bulk of the length measurements is from the three main fleet segments, i.e. trawls, longlines 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.
Length distributions from the main fleet segments are shown in Figure 10. The sizes caught by the main gear types (bottom trawl and longlines) appear to be fairly stable, primarily catching haddock in the size range between 40 and 70 cm. Gillnets tend to catch slightly larger fish and modes of the length distribution vary more depending on the availability of large haddock.