Icelandic Fisheries

Einar K. Guðfinnsson

Minister of Fisheries

The Icelandic Fisheries Management Act

• General individual transferable quota system

• Small vessels ITQ

• Regional policy instruments

Regional policy instruments

• 12 thousand tons for special purposes

• Less than 3% of the total quota allocations

• Shock absorbers

Regional policy instruments how does it work ?

• Full transferability within the small vessels system

• The small vessels can buy quotas from the big ones but not vice versa

• The aim is to ensure viable fishing villages

Catch from Icelandic fishing grounds since 1905

0

400.000

800.000

1.200.000

1.600.000

2.000.000

2.400.000

1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

Other

Crustaceans

Capelin

Herring

Redfish

Saithe

Haddock

Cod

World War I

World War II

4 miles

200 miles

12 miles

50 miles

First individual

vessel quotas

The Icelandic Fisheries Management Act

The Icelandic Fishing Industry

• Catches 1,7 – 2,1 million tons

• 2% - 2,5% of the world’s catches of wild fish

• Market value of seafood around 2 billion US

dollars

• Most important exporting industry in Iceland

• 60% of merchandise exports

• 40% of total exports of goods and services

The main fishing nations in the world

0

5.000.000

10.000.000

15.000.000

20.000.000

China Peru USA Indonesia Japan India Chile Russia Thailand Norw ay Philippines Iceland Vietnam South-

Korea

Mex ico

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Iceland 2,2% of world catches

Accumulated share of wold catches

Catch in tonnes

The figure presents the fish catches of the world´s main fisheries countries in tonnes in 2003 (on the left axis) and their accumulated share (%) of world catch (on the right axis).

The worlds main fishing nations

0

2.000.000

4.000.000

6.000.000

8.000.000

10.000.000

12.000.000

14.000.000

Thous. USD

Exports

Imports

Iceland

The figure shows US-dollar value of exports and imports by the largest exporters of marine products in 2003

Icelandic fishing fleet 2004, catch and catch value

672

2.043

855

1.338.946

37.554

87

369.354

28.378

19.3060%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Number of vessels that landed fish Catch (tonnes) Catch value (millions ISK)

Trawlers

Decked vessels

Undecked vessels

Value of marine product exports 2004 by trading areas

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

EEA North America Asia Africa Europe outside EEA Other countries

Value of exports in billion ISK

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

UKSpa

inFranc

e

Portug

al

Denmark

German

y

Netherland

s

Norway

Other E

EA

Export value 2004 and main cod markets

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Cod Shrimp Haddock Capelin Redfish

0

2.000

4.000

6.000

8.000

10.000

12.000

UK Spain Portugal USA France Nigeria Belgium Italy Netherlands

Billions IKR fob

IUU fishing

• Illegal, unreported and unregulated

• Good co-operation necessary

• Use of port state responsibility

Fighting IUU fishing

• Made inconvenient and costly

• Increased surveillance

Fighting IUU fishing

• Thousand letters send to potential buyers

• Future interests of legitimate and respectable companies

The Fisheries Competitiveness Index

• Competitiveness of fishing industries between nations

• Favorable business environment

• Internal and external competition

The basis

Strong, forward-looking and

responsible fishing sector