HADDOCK

Melanogrammus aeglefinus


Assessment report
Published by

Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, Iceland

Published

12 June 2026

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 2025 recruitment estimates are near this average. The earliest signs of 2026 recruitment are high, indicating likely increases in the 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.

  • Despite a sharp decrease in reference biomass from last year, current biomass estimates from the stock assessment are one of 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.

General information

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

Landing trends

Landings of haddock in ICES area 5.a in 2025 totaled 84322 tonnes (Figure 1). 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 2025 was 1612 tonnes.

Figure 1: Haddock in 5a. Recorded landings since 1905.

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 2: Haddock in 5a. Landings in tons and percent of total by gear and year
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.

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 6 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).

Figure 6: 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.
Table 1: Haddock in 5a. Number of Icelandic vessels landing haddock, and all landed catch divided by gear type.
Year Nr. Bottom Trawl Nr. Other Nr. Danish Seine Nr. Long Line Bottom Trawl Other Danish Seine Long Line Total catch
2000 164 504 117 479 23 300 1 740 3 101 13 089 41 230
2001 146 631 91 447 22 034 2 050 3 036 11 982 39 102
2002 144 548 91 417 30 377 1 990 3 596 13 638 49 601
2003 136 550 96 435 36 239 1 664 4 804 17 284 59 991
2004 131 656 95 449 50 722 1 787 8 095 23 198 83 802
2005 126 488 90 449 53 046 1 573 10 493 30 767 95 879
2006 116 416 93 436 45 968 1 217 12 709 36 237 96 131
2007 109 345 94 407 57 033 1 080 12 869 37 199 108 181
2008 102 311 91 362 51 228 944 16 457 33 051 101 680
2009 98 448 81 335 39 078 608 15 182 26 571 81 439
2010 94 623 67 279 29 341 475 10 138 23 916 63 870
2011 95 630 54 278 20 718 473 6 866 21 175 49 232
2012 98 699 56 289 20 469 473 6 048 18 722 45 712
2013 95 702 65 282 18 829 398 4 955 19 197 43 379
2014 84 654 47 283 13 438 329 3 776 15 598 33 141
2015 83 607 50 257 17 337 360 4 327 16 432 38 456
2016 82 580 53 237 17 045 321 4 456 14 927 36 749
2017 80 531 53 210 16 456 343 4 539 14 447 35 785
2018 71 494 58 194 26 639 336 5 585 15 190 47 750
2019 69 493 43 183 35 947 302 6 237 14 650 57 136
2020 73 536 42 149 32 005 278 5 079 16 189 53 551
2021 82 532 46 142 35 961 264 5 338 14 541 56 104
2022 73 513 57 115 39 003 243 3 929 13 830 57 005
2023 76 607 60 97 44 869 304 6 599 17 589 69 361
2024 78 594 37 89 57 706 265 8 757 16 819 83 547
2025 71 594 40 92 53 556 274 12 018 16 640 82 488

Catch per unit of effort from commercial fisheries

Catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) from hauls where haddock comprise more than 50% of the catch show a steady increase in CPUE since 1990 across the main gear types (Figure 7). CPUE levels from bottom trawls and demersal seine are among the highest recorded in the time series, whereas those from longlines remain relatively low. This trend aligns with fishers’ perception that haddock are easy to catch. However, this pattern differs from that observed in surveys and stock assessments, which show less of an increase after 2000 and a more pronounced decline in recent years.

It is important to note that these differences may partly reflect changes in the size composition of the stock. The biomass of haddock ≥60 cm is currently at the highest observed level in the time series, while total biomass is near its long-term average. This suggests that CPUE trends may be more reflective of the abundance of larger individuals rather than overall stock size.

Regional differences in CPUE are also evident. In the area north of Iceland, CPUE has shown a continuous increase, whereas in southern regions it more closely mirrors the biomass trends observed in the spring survey. Bycatch is minimal, as haddock are typically targeted in species-specific catch compositions.

CPUE could not be estimated for 2022 due to the unavailability of effort data at the time of assessment.

Figure 7: Haddock in 5a. Catch per unit of effort in the most important gear types. The dashed lines are based on locations where more than 50% of the catch is haddock and solid lines on all records where haddock is caught. A change occurred in the longline fleet starting September 1999. Earlier only vessels larger than 10 BRT were required to return logbooks but later all vessels were required to return logbooks. Effort data is not available for 2022.

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 8, 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 8: Haddock in 5a. Estimates of annual discards by gear (point estimate and 95% confidence interval). No estimates are available since 2018.

Data and sampling

Commercial data

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 9 and Figure 10). An overview of the sampled otoliths is provided in Table 3.

Figure 9: 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 10: Haddock in 5a. Fishing grounds last year as reported in logbooks (contours) and positions of samples taken from landings (crosses) by main gear types.

Length compositions

Commercial catches primarily consist of haddock ranging from 40 to 70 cm, a range that has remained stable in recent years (Figure 11). 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.