The advice issued by Iceland’s Marine and Freshwater Research Institute for the capelin season that is already underway is for a TAC not exceeding 275,705 tonnes.
This advice hasn’t matched the industry’s anticipation for a strong season – but there’s nothing unusual about TAC advice being revised right up to the final days of the season.
This is a 57,300 tonne increase on the initial advice, but isn’t anywhere near what the industry had been hoping for – considering the optimism following the bumper 2021-22 season that had been the largest for many years, and during which the fleet wasn’t able to take all of its quotas.
The latest advice is based on data obtained during ghe 23-30th January survey carried out by research vessels Bjarni Sæmundsson and Árni Friðriksson, and commercial pelagic vessels Jóna Eðvalds, Heimaey and Ásgrímur Halldórsson.
The advised TAC is based on the premise of a 95% likelihood of there being a 150,000 tonne spawning stock in March, taking predation into account.
Several vessels unde the Greenlandic flag have already been fishing for capelin since the beginning of the year and now the Icelandic fleet is rapidly gearing up for the capelin season, having left the blue whiting fishery in Faroese waters that has kept them busy so far this year. Faroese and Norwegian vessels are also heading for Icelandic waters to take their share of the capelin quota.
