Director of the Icelandic Marine Research Institute Jóhann Sigurdsson is confident that the institute’s recommendations to limit the fishing allowances for cod, resulting in a quota cut by one third in 2007, were successful.
Fishing in Iceland. Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.
“We definitely believe the reduction is delivering results,” Sigurdsson told Morgunbladid. “Now we just have to continue on the same path and then we will reap as we have sown.”
The institute’s latest conclusions on the condition of the cod stock are positive. The cod stock’s overall index is slightly higher than last year.
In 2008 the index hadn’t been higher since the annual measuring of the size of the cod stock began in the autumn of 1996.
This growth is traced directly back to the quota cut of 2007, a controversial decision at the time.
Furthermore, the measuring of the length of the fish shows that the number of cod longer than 70 centimeters is higher this year than in 2008.
Last year, such long fish hadn’t been seen in such quantities since the measuring first began. The cod’s weight is also above average.
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