Whales



Home
E-mail

NORTHERN SHRIMP Pandalus borealis

Northern shrimp is also called coldwater prawn on some markets.

Northern shrimp is widespread in the North Atlantic and the North Pacific Oceans and is a very valuable resource. In Icelandic waters it is found from the southwest coast of Iceland and along the west, north and east coasts, most often at depths of 50-700 m. In recent years, fishing has mostly been off the north coast. Shrimp has a remarkable life cycle. At sexual maturity it first becomes a male but later changes its gender and turns female. This happens at the age of 2-6 years in different waters, depending on environmental conditions, mostly sea temperature.

In the past shrimp has been caught all year round by shrimp trawl but offshore the best fishing was traditionally in the summer months. The offshore shrimp numbers 100-300 per kg, while the inshore shrimp is smaller, numbering 250-400 per kg.

The annual shrimp catch in Icelandic waters increased steadily from 10,000 tonnes in 1980 to 76,000 tonnes in 1995 but has since decreased again. Landings were only 850 tonnes in 2006. There is also shrimp fishing in international waters. Icelandic ships started fishing in the international Flemish Cap area in 1993. Their  landings have varied from 2,000 tonnes to 21,000 tonnes annually but  were 2,000 tonnes in 2006.  

Scientific recommendations and TACs are based on assessment for different stocks, some of which are quite localized, especially in the inshore fisheries.

The status of shrimp stocks in various areas depends among other things on shrimp fishing effort and cod abundance since shrimp is part of the food of cod, especially small cod. Small cod has been abundant in the traditional shrimp fishing areas in the past few years and this has adversely affected the shrimp stock and landings in both in offshore and inshore fisheries in recent years. 

For the 2007/2008 fishing year, the TAC for offshore shrimp is 7,000 tonnes, in line with scientific recommendations, but no TAC has been set for inshore shrimp. 

The Flemish Cap shrimp fishery is managed by NAFO on basis of effort limitations. The Icelandic authorites protested this form of management and advocated individual catch quotas. The TAC for Icelandic ships on the Flemish Cap has been set unilaterally at 13,500 tonnes in 2007.

The first diagram shows the inshore shrimp catch since 2001, together with MRI recommendations and the set TAC. This comparison shows that shrimp fishing has been closely controlled and in accordance with scientific recommendations.
The second diagram shows in the same way the development of the offshore shrimp catch in Icelandic waters since 2001.