By Árni Mathiesen, Særós Óskarsdóttir and Kalman Christer
Introduction
According to Act on the management of fisheries No. 116/2006 builds a fisheries management system on quota whereas Total allowable catch The quota for each fish species is set annually based on advice from the Marine Research Institute. The Fisheries Administration handles the allocation. fishing quotas to individual vessels on the basis of quotas linked to specific vessels and fishing licences. The fishing year runs from 1 September to 31 August of the following year.
Quota entitlements are allocated to specific vessels for one fishing year at a time. The allocation is made in such a way that each share (e.g. 0.5%) grants the right to a corresponding proportion of the annual total allowable catch for the relevant species. The fishing rights are transferable and transactions involving them are registered with the Fisheries Agency.
Trout equivalency factors (TQRs) are the relative price of a species compared to cod and are used to calculate the value of allocations for each fishing year (1 September – 31 August). They are assessed based on the price and quantity of products from 1 May to 30 April, and the ministry shall calculate these coefficients by 15 July.
General hunting licence There are two types, namely quotas and net-tonnage licences. The combined quota share of fishing vessels owned by individual natural or legal persons, or by associated undertakings, may not exceed 121% of the total value of the quota share for all species subject to a total allowable catch, or over 51% of the total value of the trawl quota share. Furthermore, the law provides for a maximum quota share for the same parties in individual species, so their maximum quota share may never be higher than, for example, 12% for cod, 20% for haddock and 35% for turbot.
Calculation models
The company Arev has for some time been developing computational models for analysing information on, for example, quotas and ownership in the fishing industry, where the actual situation can be viewed in relation to current legislation, as well as analysing the impact that proposed bills to amend the law (e.g. regarding transparency and related parties) would have if they were enacted. It is possible to calculate concentration in the fisheries sector and within individual fish stocks, using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI). A database on ownership in the fisheries sector has been established to calculate the maximum market share. It allows for the analysis of various outcomes when taking into account family ties, control under different legal definitions, and various definitions of related parties.
The calculation programmes are based on information from the Fisheries Administration database and the Tax Authority's company register in order to quickly and reliably retrieve the results of selected parameters. Therefore, this is a live database, meaning both that the assumptions selected on each occasion are taken into account, and that the underlying information is the most up-to-date available at all times.
The images accompanying this article examine several previous fishing years in terms of the total allocated catch for the country's largest seafood companies. The fishing years 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 were examined, in addition to the newly begun fishing year, where estimated allocations for mackerel, herring and the Norwegian-Icelandic herring are projected.
Figure 1 shows the share of the fishing company Brim in the quota shares system under current legislation for the 2022-2025 fishing years. The reference line at 12% marks the maximum that no single company or group of companies may exceed. The yellow area is the 2022-2023 fishing year, red is 2023-2024 and green is 2024-2025.
Figure 2 shows the share of the Síldarvinnslan group in the quota shares system under current legislation for the 2022-2025 fishing years. The reference line at 12% marks the maximum that no single company or group of companies may exceed. November 2022 The Competition Authority approved the merger of Síldarvinnslan and Víðir which explains the fluctuation above the 12% reference.
Figures 1 and 2 reveal that under current legislation, the companies have exceeded the 12% limit within the fishing year. Companies such as Brim exceed the limit considerably before the allocations for all species are exhausted within the given fishing year.
The allocation system works as follows: at the start of the fishing year, quotas are allocated for most stocks, with the exception of some major pelagic stocks, and their allocations are spread throughout the year. This can be seen in Figure 1, but in the 2022-2023 fishing year there were a total of 14 allocations, although there are often fewer. Predictability is limited, given that if a party exceeds the 121% TAC mark, they must take measures to bring their quota share below the limit. Currently, a six-month grace period is granted to get below the limit, but as can be seen from figures 1 and 2, a new fishing year always arrives before that period has expired. The 2025-2026 fishing year. The 2025-2026 fishing year.
Fishing year 2025-2026
To examine this issue more closely, two scenarios were set up for the same parties for the new fishing year, where the first allocation is on 1 September and the capelin allocation on 10 September. October last, while other allocations are projected based on the harvest advice for blue whiting, Norwegian-Icelandic herring and mackerel. In both cases, the parties approach the 12% cap at the end of the fishing year, as in previous years, which is clearer in Figure 3.
Figure 3 shows a scenario for the current fishing year, 2025/2026, where the first allocation is on 1 September and the capelin allocation on 10 October last year, while other allocations are based on information about expected allocations.
A similar pattern is likely for this fishing year, as in previous years. At the start of the season, all parties are below the 12% maximum, but as the fishing year progresses and more quotas have been allocated, large players approach or even exceed their permitted limit, which they then have half a year to get back under.
