The Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) is a long, streamlined boney fish with  medium sized head. They  are generally 30 – 40 cm long. It is a pelagic, shoaling fish and is to be found on both sides of the North Atlantic. It lives from the surface and down to depths of 250 m. and at various salinities.

Herring can be found in the seas all around Iceland. it is caught by herring- and capelin- seine and by pelagic trawl. The age of the catch is often 4 – 7 years at weights of 200 – 300 g. The flesh of herring shows great variation in fat content according to season.

The various subspecies of  C. harengus can be distinguished apart by appearance and morphology. There are two main stocks of herring in Icelandic waters which differ in growth rate, size, time of spawning and migration patterns;

· Icelandic summer spawning herring,
· Norwegian spring spawning herring (Atlanto-Scandian herring)

The Icelandic summer spawning herring lives in the coastal waters around Iceland, and has been utilised since the mid 1970’s after a fishing ban for several years.  The catch is seasonal, mostly taking place in October to January off the east, south and west coasts of Iceland. This stock spawns in July off the southwest and southeast coasts of Iceland and then migrates in search of feeding grounds off the west and east coasts. Catch quota for Icelandic herring has increased steadily since 1975, amounting to around 100,000 tonnes per year in recent years.

Of the 110,000 tonnes of Icelandic summer spawning herring which was allocated for 2004/2005,  about 107,000 tonnes were caught but only about 25,000 tonnes of this has been processed into meal and oil. The remainder was processed for human consumption.  The quota for 2005/2006 remains unchanged at 110,000 tonnes.

The Norwegian spring spawning herring is found in the open seas of the northeast Atlantic. This stock spawns in February to April off western Norway and the immature fish stay in Norwegian waters while the adult fish migrate in search of food further out into the northeast Atlantic. Until the late 1960’s  shoals would approach the Icelandic coast in the summer and often be caught in very large quantities by the Icelandic fleet. The stock declined rapidly in the second half of the 60’s due to adverse environmental conditions and also overfishing of small herring by the international fleet. Fishing was banned for almost 25 years until in 1985 when the fishery was reopened in Norwegian waters with very small quotas.  The stock has now, however, recovered and international agreements have maintained it in a sustainable condition.

This stock has been harvested by Norway, Russia, Faroe Islands, the European Union and Iceland and total landings in 2004 amounted to 806.000 tonnes. Most of the fishing is in international waters but also within Faroese waters and near Jan Mayen (Norway). 

ICES have advised a TAC of 890,000 tonnes for 2005. The Icelandic Minister of Fisheries has unilaterally allocated a quota of 157,700 tonnes to the Icelandic fleet.