Iceland: Cod quota for 2010-2011 increased by 10,000 tons

Jonas Bjarnason, Minister of  Fisheries, has set the cod quota for the coming fishing year (starting September 1st 2010), reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to Iceland Seafood International.

This is 160,000 tons, ten thousand tons more than quota for the current fishing year and in accordance with the recommendation of the Marine Research Institute.  Most of the analysts seem to agree that the cod stock is on the increase and probably more so than had been expected.  The minister is therefore setting up a working group to revise the so-called fishing rule, which determines the share of the cod stock (so-called reference stock) that can be taken each year.  This share is now 20 percent and there is some speculation that this might be increased to 25 percent.