Ling

The fishery on ling around Iceland is well documented. The fish stock is currently on its highest level, but the recruitment of young fish has strongly declined. This will result in the coming years in a decrease of the ling stock and catches.

In Iceland it is forbidden to discard bycatch. The amount of bycatch is low the ling fishery. All fisheries around the vulnerable cold-water corals around Iceland are pre-emptively forbidden.

Most Icelandic fisheries on ling have since 2015 been MSC-certifiedMSC Certified:
Fisheries that comply with the Marine Stewardship Council assessment criteria and are certified. Fish products with the blue MSC label are caught by sustainable fisheries.. These fisheries use multiple methods; [bottom otter trawl], [Danish seine], [set longlines], [handlines] and GillnetsGillnets:
A fishing technique whereby passing fish get caught in the meshes with their gills. The net stands vertically on the bottom or hangs on buoys in the water column. The by-catch of species such as porpoises and dolphins is a problem related to gillnets.. These methods have a lower impact on the ecosystem than traditional methods to catch ling, especially the [beam trawl]

The MSC certificate is only for the common ling, not for blue ling.

The fishery on ling around Iceland is well documented. The fish stock is currently on its highest level, but the recruitment of young fish has strongly declined. This will result in the coming years in a decrease of the ling stock and catches.

In Iceland it is forbidden to discard bycatch, but it is unclear whether this prohibition also applies to the ling fishery. [Discard] data of the ling fishery are not available. Longline fishery has little negative impact on the ecosystem, but all fisheries around the vulnerable cold-water corals around Iceland are pre-emptively forbidden.

The management of the ling fishery is largely effective.

The state of the ling stocks is unknown. Lings are vulnerable to [fishing pressure] because they reproduce slowly.

The [bottom otter trawl] is a fishing method with generally a high bycatch of undersizedUndersized fish:
Fish smaller than a prescribed minimum size. These sizes are determined per species and per country. For Europe, a minimum landing size applies to all EU Member States.  and undesired species. [Discarding] is forbidden in Norway and Russia. Fishing with bottom otter trawls has an impact on the seabed and directly disturbs the life on the bottom. Research shows that intensive fishing leads on the long-term to a changed [species composition] in sea.

The management of ling is largely effective. A TACTAC:
Total Allowable Catch: catch limitations for commercially important fish species made by the Council of Fisheries Ministers on the basis of scientific advice.  is set for the EU ships but it is structurally exceeded. The highest fishing pressure comes from the national Norwegian fleet, which is bound by the TAC.

The state of the ling stocks is unknown. Lings are vulnerable to [fishing pressure] because they reproduce slowly.

There is much bycatch in the longlineLongline:
Also known as line fishing. A fishing method in which lines and hooks are used. fishery. Discarding is prohibited in Norway, and therefore the amount of fish that is thrown back into the sea is low. Longline fishery has little negative impact on the seabed and there are no long-term effects on the ecosystem. Unfortunately, there is also much bycatch of seabirds when the hooks are hanging at low depth.

The management of ling is largely effective. A TACTAC:
Total Allowable Catch: catch limitations for commercially important fish species made by the Council of Fisheries Ministers on the basis of scientific advice.  is set for the EU ships but it is structurally exceeded. The highest fishing pressure comes from the national Norwegian fleet, which is bound by the TAC.