HADDOCK

Melanogrammus aeglefinus


Assessment report
Published by

Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, Iceland

Published

6 June 2025

Key signals

  • Survey biomass steadily increased from 2011, peaking sharply in 2023–2025 at levels similar to the peak observed in 2003–2006.

  • High recruitment from 2020–2022 is the primary driver behind the current biomass peak. However, recruitment in 2023 and 2024 has fallen below the decade’s average, while early indicators for 2025 suggest recruitment near this average. Consequently, it is likely that haddock biomass will decline in the near future.

  • Length distributions have remained stable over the past decade, reflecting consistent periodic recruitment and a broad range of sizes currently present in the stock.

  • Current biomass estimates from the stock assessment are the highest recorded since 1979, though these estimates carry considerable uncertainty.

  • Harvest rates have generally fluctuated around the target harvest rate set over the last decade, with no major deviations.

Stock description and management units

Haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) is abundant in the coastal waters around Iceland and is mostly limited to the Icelandic continental shelf. Haddock is predominantly distributed around Iceland’s western and southern coasts, typically in depths between 10 and 200 meters. Historically, spawning activity has been restricted to southern waters. Recently, an increasing proportion of the fishable stock has been observed off the northern coast compared to previous decades.

Fishery

The haddock fishery in ICES area 5a has seen minimal structural changes recently, although the number of vessels responsible for 95% of the catch has steadily decreased (Figure 1 and Table 1). Approximately 250 longliners, 60 trawlers, and 40 demersal seine boats report catches annually. Historically, trawlers have dominated the catches, currently accounting for around 60%, while catches from longliners have increased significantly since the mid-1990s (Figure 2). Demersal seine catches have remained stable at about 15%, and contributions from other vessel types are minimal(Figure 2). Main fishing grounds are in the southern, southwestern, and western regions, with recent years showing increased catches from northern and northeastern waters (Figure 4 and Figure 5).

Figure 1: Haddock in 5a. Number of vessels (all gear types) accounting for 95% of the total catch annually since 1994. Left: Plotted against year. Right: Plotted against total catch. Data from the Directorate of Fisheries.
Figure 2: Haddock in 5a. Landings in tons and percent of total by gear and year
Table 1: Haddock in 5a. Number of Icelandic vessels landing haddock, and all landed catch divided by gear type.
Year Nr. Other Nr. Long Line Nr. Danish Seine Nr. Bottom Trawl Other Long Line Danish Seine Bottom Trawl Total catch
2000 504 479 117 164 1 740 13 089 3 101 23 300 41 230
2001 631 447 91 146 2 050 11 982 3 036 22 034 39 102
2002 548 417 91 144 1 990 13 638 3 596 30 377 49 601
2003 550 435 96 136 1 664 17 284 4 804 36 239 59 991
2004 656 449 95 131 1 787 23 198 8 095 50 722 83 802
2005 488 449 90 126 1 573 30 767 10 493 53 046 95 879
2006 416 436 93 116 1 217 36 237 12 709 45 968 96 131
2007 345 407 94 109 1 080 37 199 12 869 57 033 108 181
2008 311 362 91 102 944 33 051 16 457 51 228 101 680
2009 448 335 81 98 608 26 571 15 182 39 078 81 439
2010 623 279 67 94 475 23 916 10 138 29 341 63 870
2011 630 278 54 95 473 21 175 6 866 20 718 49 232
2012 699 289 56 98 473 18 722 6 048 20 469 45 712
2013 702 282 65 95 398 19 197 4 955 18 829 43 379
2014 654 283 47 84 329 15 598 3 776 13 438 33 141
2015 607 257 50 83 360 16 432 4 327 17 337 38 456
2016 580 237 53 82 321 14 927 4 456 17 045 36 749
2017 531 210 53 80 343 14 447 4 539 16 456 35 785
2018 494 194 58 71 336 15 190 5 585 26 639 47 750
2019 493 183 43 69 302 14 650 6 237 35 947 57 136
2020 536 149 42 73 278 16 189 5 079 32 005 53 551
2021 532 142 46 82 264 14 541 5 338 35 961 56 104
2022 513 115 57 73 243 13 830 3 929 39 003 57 005
2023 607 97 60 76 304 17 589 6 599 44 869 69 361
2024 594 89 37 79 265 16 817 8 757 57 706 83 545
Figure 3: Haddock in 5a. Depth distribution of haddock catches from bottom trawls, longlines, trawls and demersal seine from Icelandic logbooks
Figure 4: Haddock in 5a. Changes in spatial distribution of haddock catches as recorded in Icelandic logbooks.
Figure 5: Haddock in 5a. Spatial distribution of catches by all gears for selected years.

Landing trends

Landings of haddock in ICES area 5.a in 2024 totaled 85177 tonnes (Figure 6). This represents a significant decrease from the high levels of approximately 100,000 tonnes recorded between 2005 and 2008, returning to levels somewhat lower than observed between 1975 and the early 2000s. Foreign vessel landings have significantly declined following the expansion of the Icelandic Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), with Faroese vessels now accounting for the majority of foreign catches and which in 2024 was 1442 tonnes.

Figure 6: Haddock in 5a. Recorded landings since 1905.

Data available

Sampling from commercial catches is generally comprehensive, covering the main gears (demersal seines, longlines, and trawls) and adequately representing the spatial and seasonal distribution of catches (Figure 7 and Figure 8).

Figure 7: Haddock in 5a. Ratio of samples by month (bars) compared with proportion landings by month (solid black line) split by year and main gear types. Numbers of above the bars indicate number of samples by year, month and gear.
Figure 8: Haddock in 5a. Fishing grounds last year as reported in logbooks (contours) and positions of samples taken from landings (crosses) by main gear types.

Landings and discards

Historical landings data come from various databases.

Historical landings data are sourced from various databases such as ICES STATLAN database, Directorate of Fisheries and the Icelandic Coast Guard.

Icelandic law prohibits discarding, and discard rates since 2001 have been low, generally below 3% of the total annual landings, both in weight and numbers (Figure 9, also see MRI (2016) for further details). Fisheries management regulations effectively discourage discarding through quota flexibility and quota conversion measures. In addition to prevent high grading and quota mismatch the fisheries are allowed to land fish that will not be accounted for in the allotted quota, provided that the proceedings when the landed catch is sold will go to the Fisheries Project Fund (Verkefnasjóður sjávarútvegsins).

Figure 9: Haddock in 5a. Estimates of annual discards by gear (point estimate and 95% confidence interval). No estimates are available since 2018.

Length compositions

Commercial catches primarily consist of haddock ranging from 40 to 70 cm, a range that has remained stable in recent years (Figure 10). Gillnet fisheries tend to target slightly larger individuals, and the modes of the length distributions vary more markedly depending on the presence of larger haddock.

Most length measurements are derived from the three main fleet segments: trawl, longline, and demersal seine fisheries (Table 2). The number of length samples collected by gear type has fluctuated in recent years, reflecting shifts in fleet composition.