The country now has a fleet of 709 vessels licensed to fish, 58 fewer than this time last year. The fleet size is still quite large for a country with a population of around 320,000 people.

Almost half the fleet consists of ocean going vessels, with the remainder operating in home waters. There are also a large number of open boats not included in this figure, which work very close inshore.

The reason behind the big reduction is the huge cut in cod quotas over 12 months ago, which fell by some 60,000 tonnes.

This has resulted in mergers and forced some companies to trim their costs by laying up or selling uneconomic vessels. Fortunately, the rising prices of fish in European and UK markets has helped to offset some of these costs, but it remains a difficult time for the Icelandic catching industry which has been critical of the fuel subsidies handed out to the European Union fleets a few weeks ago.

This year's cod quota (September 2008 to August 2009) is now 252,634 tonnes compared to 301,307 tonnes 12 months ago.

In Iceland each of the main trawler operators receives a percentage of the quota, according to the size of its fleet which can be swapped between companies around provided the overall figure is not exceeded.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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