General information
The underlying data and assumptions for the assessment and advice on fishing opportunities on lumpfish in Icelandic waters are introduced here. Juvenile lumpfish are non-shoaling, mainly pelagic and are distributed in open water throughout the Norwegian Sea, Denmark Strait and Irminger Sea. When they mature, at 3 years old, lumpfish migrate to coastal areas around Iceland to spawn with males arriving January-February and females arriving February-March. During the migration, females exhibit a mix of pelagic and demersal behaviour. The weight of the roe close to spawning can account for 25-35% of female body weight. Lumpfish show pronounced sexual dimorphism, with the males maturing at a smaller size (~25-35 cm) than the females (~35-45 cm) and the males have an intense red colouration during the spawning season. The females lay the eggs in nests in shallow water and the male will then guard the eggs until they hatch. A female lumpfish will spawn two batches of eggs per spawning season but there is high mortality after spawning with a typical lumpfish only spawning in 1 or 2 spawning seasons.
Commercial fishery
There are two separate fisheries for lumpfish, a small scale male fishery (generally less than 60 tonnes per year) for the flesh and a much larger female fishery (typically 2 to 10 thousand tonnes per year) where the primary target is the roe.
The female fishery takes place from March until August, and uses gillnets with a mesh between 267 and 292 mm. More than 99% of the landings of females are from the directed female fishery. The female fishery takes place close to shore and is located in Faxaflói Bay, Breiðafjördur and along the northern coast (Figure 1). Landings from the female fishery peaked between late 1970’s and 1980’s (Figure 2). Pre 2008, landings have been estimated from the number of barrels of roe produced with the numbers being provided by the National Small Boat Owners Association. From 2008, it became mandatory that all landings are recorded in a similar manner to all other fisheries in Iceland, however it was still legal to dispose of the bodies at sea so the majority of landings consisted of only roe. In 2012, it became mandatory to land the bodies but an exception has been made for 2021 and 2022 due to market conditions. As the price of lumpfish does not vary with the size of individual fish, it is considered unlikely that there is any discarding through high-grading. There is un-quantified discarding of lumpfish from trawlers, but the amounts are believed to be low relative to the landings from the directed fishery. As of 2019, it is legal to release male lumpfish caught while targeting females.
The male fishery takes place in only a few locations along the coast (Figure 3) from January to March and uses gillnets with a mesh of between 178 and 203 mm. Approximately 20-60 tonnes of male lumpfish are landed each year with the directed fishery making up between 2 and 56% of the total landings per year between 2003 and 2025 (Figure 4). Other landings of males come from the female fishery and from other gears (cod gillnets, demersal seine and bottom trawls). The effort in the cod-gillnet fishery increased from 2002-2006 and then decreased from 2006-2020 which is reflected in the landings of male lumpfish. This decrease of landings from the cod gillnet fishery partially accounts for the wide range in the percentage of total landings from the male fishery.
Estimation of historical landings
As landings data were not routinely collected before 2008, the landings before this period are estimated from number of barrels of roe produced with thes data being provided by the National Association of Small Boat Owners. The method used to do this is described in Kennedy and Jónsson (2020). In summary, information from fisher logbooks is used to estimate the average weight of roe in a fish and the amount of fresh roe that is needed to fill one barrel of roe. The values currently used are 29.4% of the weight for the average amount of roe per fish and that it takes 139 kg of fresh roe to fill one barrel. This equates to 472 kg of ungutted lumpfish per barrel of roe, thus the weight of the landings of lumpfish (tonnes) = 0.472 * number of barrels.
Landings of roe that are recorded by the Directorate of Fisheries are converted to weight of whole lumpfish using the formula \[\textrm{W}_{lump} = \textrm{W}_{roe} \times \textrm{ 1.25 } \times \frac{\textrm{100}}{\textrm{29.4}}\]
where Wlump = weight of whole lumpfish and Wroe = weight of landed roe. When roe is landed, 20% of the weight is deducted to account for the fluids and this is the weight recorded by the directorate of fisheries. It is assumed the roe accounts for an average of 29.4% of the weight of the fish.
Management and previous advice
Up until 2024, the female lumpfish fishery was an effort controlled fishery with limits placed on the total length of nets, total number of fishing days and total number of boats. The total number of boats was limited as boats were required to have both a valid commercial fishing licence and “Grásleppuréttindi”, a permit which allows the boat to fish for lumpfish. In March 2024 there were 420 boats with Grásleppuréttindi. In 1997, a cap was placed on the number of permits, no new ones were issued, and a permit could only be obtained by transferring it from one boat to another. To participate in the fishery for a particular year, a boat with a permit to fish lumpfish needed to inform the Directorate of Fisheries that they will activate the license for that year. In 2025, the fishery switched from input to output controls, with the use of individual quotas based on catch shares and an overall total allowable catch (TAC).
The coastline around Iceland is divided into lumpfish management areas (Figure 1). Up until 2024 (with the exception of 2020), each area was open for lumpfish fishing for approximately 2.5 months. Each boat had to select an area for that year and could not fish in another. The licence allowed fishing for female lumpfish for an allocated number of days within the time period in which that area was open, each boat choosing a continuous period within the open season. The area system was abolished in 2020 and boats were free to move between areas, except for the inner Breiðafjörður area (B2) which opened later (20th May) than the other areas. The area system was reinstated in 2021 and continued when the fishery became an output controlled fishery (but with the merging of several areas) with each boat only allowed to fish their quota within the area in which the boat was registered. There are a number of areas which are closed for lumpfish fishing with the aim to lower the bycatch of marine mammals (Figure 5).
Up until 2024, the primary method to limit catches of female lumpfish was by altering the total number of days that each boat could fish for. The number of days was set annually by the goverment and was based upon an advised TAC for female lumpfish from MFRI and discussions with stakeholders. MFRI have been advising on a TAC since 2012 (Table 1), which is given in tonnes (see Advice section below). From 2020 until 2024, the fishery could be effectively closed by the Directorate of Fisheries by cancelling all lumpfish licences if it was foreseen that fishing could become harmful with regards to the sustainable exploitation of the stock.
The only restrictions on the male fishery are the period in which a male lumpfish net can be used (1st January – 15th June) and the mesh size and height of the net. There is no TAC and MFRI does not issue advice on a male lumpfish TAC.
Effort and catch per unit effort (CPUE)
Up until 2024, the number of boats participating in the female fishery was influenced, alongside other factors, by the market price of the roe. Pre-1996, the number of boats participating in the fishery was higher, varying approximately between 290 and 447 per year (Table 1). Post 1996, the number of boats varied from 140 to 363. However, the number of nets per boat increased between these two periods, while the number of days for which each boat can fish has decreased (Table 1). The number of boats participating in the male fishery has varied between 1 and 17 between 2001 and 2023 (Figure 4).
The CPUE is estimated from fisher logbooks and is calculated as the weight of catch divided by the number of nets (Figure 6). The CPUE of the female fishery has varied over time and is influenced both by the biomass of the population and by the effort itself.