Iceland review - 2016, Síða 120

118 ICELAND REVIEW
On a global scale, Iceland ranks 14th as a fishing nation,
and has ranked from 10th to 21st place since 1950.
Few nations are as dependent on fisheries as Iceland.
Through the centuries, the fishing industry has been vital for
the national economy, only recently giving way to tourism as
Iceland’s largest industry.
In centuries past, fishing meant strenuous and dangerous work
in small open rowboats. The first small trawler arrived in Iceland
in 1905, and soon, motorized trawlers replaced the decked sail-
boat. Since the second half of last century, the Icelandic fleet
has been constantly modernized for improved efficiency, crew
safety and comfort. Currently the national fishing fleet numbers
1,655 vessels: 833 small undecked boats, 764 decked vessels,
and 58 trawlers. Today, roughly 5,000 people, or 4 percent of
the population, work at sea. The productivity of the Icelandic
fishing fleet is among the highest in the world. On average, an
Icelandic fisherman catches 210 tons of fish per year; three times
more than his Norwegian counterpart, and eight times more than
the average fisherman in the EU.
The Icelandic economy has always been heavily dependent
on export/import. To pay for the import of grain, minerals and
manufactured products, we needed to export goods, and from
the 14th century until the beginning of last century, around half
of the exports were marine products. The importance of marine
products steadily increased and reached 90 percent of the total
merchandise export in the period from 1930 to 1967, when the
herring stocks collapsed and the ratio of marine products to total
merchandise export fell sharply.
The fishing industry recovered and today it’s as important as
ever to this small island nation of only 330,000 souls. Along with
tourism, aluminum smelting and the fast-growing IT industry, fish-
eries is one of the four pillars of the Icelandic national economy.
PILLAR OF THE ECONOMY
The seventh annual Seafood Conference Iceland (Sjávarútvegsráðstefnan)
will be held at Harpa, Reykjavík, November 24-25.
SPECIAL PROMOTION
ICELAND SEAFOOD
COMPILED BY ELLIOTT BRANDSMA, EYGLÓ SVALA ARNARSDÓTTIR AND JENNA GOTTLIEB.
INTRODUCTION AND COVER PHOTO BY PÁLL STEFÁNSSON.
It’s very important to keep fish
cold throughout processing.
You will get a better yield
and a better quality.
· Super chilling fish for
over 16 years
· Over 300 vessels use
Optime-ICE®
· Used all over the world
Midhraun 2 210 Gardabaer Tel. 354 587 1300 Iceland optimar@optimar.is www.optimar.is
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Flaked ice
Pumpable ice
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Time: (hours)
Cooling of
small haddoCk
sTored in iCe
Source: Seafish Scotland
When
qualiTy
matters!