BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY IN ICELAND - Convention on Biological ...

permitted, e.g. the minimum mesh size. For example, in the codfishery, the cod end minimum mesh size is 155 mm, the largestanywhere. Fishing with trawls is prohibited in large areas near thecoast that serve as spawning and nursery areas. For shrimp fishing,sorting grids are required to prevent catches of juvenile fish. Inaddition, extensive provision is made for temporary closures of fishingareas to protect spawning fish from all fisheries. Other provisions givethe Marine Research Institute the authority to close fishing areastemporarily without prior notice if the proportion of small fish in thecatch exceeds certain limits.The quota system has served adequately in keeping the total catchwithin previously determined limits. The actual total catch is closelymonitored. With a few minor exceptions, all catches are landed inIceland, and some 97% of the total catch is exported. The mostimportant achievement in recent years has undoubtedly been theprotection of the cod stock, the most important of the Icelandiccommercial stocks. After 1990, the annual cod catch had to bereduced year after year, from 300-400 thousand tons, to less than 170thousand tons. As a result of these reductions, however, it has beenpossible to increase the TAC for cod for the last five years. Althoughresent measurements indicate decrease in stock size for the TAC for2001 is around 200 thousand tons without upsetting the recovery ofthe stock in the future.TonsFishable stock and spawning stock biomass during theperiode 1990-2000 and predicted development until 2004.12000001000000800000600000400000200000019911992Spawning stock biomassProjection for 2002-200419931994199519961997199819992000Fishable stock2001200220032004At present the size of the fishable cod stock is around 577thousand tons, and the objective is to let it increase to 880 thousandtons by 2004. As far as the Icelandic herring and capelin stocks areconcerned, an informal rule has been followed for a number of yearsto manage these stocks, but the goal is to develop comparable formalcatch rules for these and other species.With regard to marine mammals, the policy of the Government ofIceland is that marine mammals should be conserved and managed in41