Iceland’s Minister of Fisheries Svandís Svavarsdóttir has acceded to a request by the country’s Directorate of Fisheries to sign off funding for in-depth assessment of discard levels.
The FAO has criticised Iceland for the limited data available on discards in Icelandic waters. A study by the Marine Research Institute and the Directorate of Fisheries indicates that discard levels are around 3-5%, while the National Audit Office concluded in 2018 that the Directorate’s discards monitoring was poor and irregular, with no clear targets or results indicators. At the same time, it pointed out that the Marine Research Institute had not investigated species-related discards for around ten years and data on length-related discards have become scarcer.
The audit also concluded that monitoring of discards was limited in scope.
Responding to the criticism by the FAO and the Audit Office, the Directorate of Fisheries initiated drone monitoring in 2021, resutling in the number of rising sharply from the usual figure of around ten annually to more than 140 by November that same year.
The key aim of this latest initiative is to obtain a realistic estimate of discard levels in Icelandic waters. This includes developing methodology to assess the extent of discarding for particular fishing gears, areas and species, and to assess the effects of discards on marine stocks.
This initiative meshes with the recent initial proposals of the Our Resources working group, which stresses the need for all catches to be landed and for incentives to make this happen.
