During the year, the Directorate of Fisheries focused on strengthening the organization's activities, services and monitoring with functional and electronic solutions. A new application system and a system that manages the administration of regional quotas were put to use. New data page for the Directorate of Fisheries was launched. The data page contains a wealth of information about fishing, fishing permits, landings, and so on. When publishing data on the site and electronic monitoring, the organization increasingly uses PowerBI reports and automatic monitoring. The organization is therefore on a journey in digital development and is now on the seventh Digital step out of nine. It is the hope of the Directorate of Fisheries that continued digital development will deliver better and faster service to customers and that access to reliable and correct information about the fishing industry is good.

Surveillance of the Directorate of Fisheries is a necessary part of ensuring that Icelandic marine products have access to the most valuable markets. Emphasis has been placed on the continued development of methods for electronic monitoring of joint driving and data analysis, automation of risk analyzes and monitoring with the aim of improving the inspectors' overview in real time on the ground and making inspections more targeted. Development like this is very important in view of the fact that the number of inspectors in the field has decreased significantly in recent years due to austerity requirements in operation of government institutions. The Directorate of Fisheries collaborates with neighboring countries on electronic monitoring, digital control and its development on the basis of a project funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, and it is planned that this collaboration will continue for at least until the end of year 2024. The Directorate of Fisheries also received a grant from the Fisheries Project Fund for the purchase of a new long-range drone for deep sea monitoring, and the purchase was completed during the year. Considerable success has been achieved in reducing discard with drone monitoring in shallow waters, as can be seen in the annual report, and it will be interesting to follow the development of drone deep sea monitoring.

At the request of the Ministry of Food, Fisheries and Agriculture a special inspection was carried out on the bycatch of marine mammals and birds in lumpfish fishing, and inspectors from the Directorate of Fisheries were on board lumpfish fishing boats for 5% of fishing trips during the season. There was also special control over whaling, with inspectors from the Directorate of Fisheries on board monitoring all fin whale fishing during the season.

In late summer, the Directorate of Fisheries received a notification that holes had been found in Arctic Fish's sea pen at Kvígindisdal in Patreksfjörður. An attempt to catch the escaped fish in Patreksfjörður under the direction of the Directoreate of Fisheries in cooperation with Arctic Fish, and few salmon were caught in that fishing operation. In the following, salmon with breeding characteristics began to be caught in rivers around the country. Farmed salmon that were later traced to this event were caught all the way from the southern side of Snæfellsnes (Haffjarðará) and east of Eyjafjörður (Fnjóská). Various measures were taken due to the situation and the large spread of farmed salmon in Icelandic fishing rivers. Search for Farmed salmon in rivers was made with drones, especially in the Westfjords and at Húnaflói, and the Directorate of Fisheries also recommended to fishing companies that salmon runs be closed, where possible, the angling season was extended so that migrations of farmed fish could be checked. In cooperation with the Directorate of Fisheries, lure fishing was used where possible, and fish were also caught with landing net at night. In addition, the Directorate of Fisheries hired divers from Norway who have experience in catching farmed fish with spearguns from rivers in Norway. This fishing method was very successful, but in total the divers caught over 200 farmed salmon during their 5 field trips. A total of over 500 farmed salmon were caught in Icelandic rivers, and of those that arrived at the Marine & Freshwater Research Institute for analysis, the vast majority were traced to the Arctic Fish seafarm pen in Patreksfjörður. Many employees of the Directorate of Fisheries were part of the project, and there was good cooperation with Arctic Fish, the National Association of Freshwater Fisheries Associations and the Marine & Freshwater Research Institute in solving it.

The Directorate of Fisheries emphasizes having good cooperation with other organizations and business partners. During the year, a cooperation agreement was signed with the Icelandic Coast Guard on, amongst other things, increased cooperation in risk analysis and control of fishing, together with control of illegal salmon and trout nets in sea. For years, the Directorate of Fisheries has also had good cooperation with the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority, and work has begun on revising the cooperation agreement between these institutions. The cooperation between the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority and the Directorate of Fisheries was significant during the year in connection with whaling and the preparation of fishing in accordance with the increased requirements, but the Directorate of Fisheries carried out on-board inspections for both organizations. Cooperation with the Icelandic Port Association was also revived and several ideas were born there, for example regarding the weighing of marine catch. Those ideas need to be further developed and checked to see if they are feasible. It is urgent for the Directorate of Fisheries, other organizations and economic partners to increase cooperation in order to work together on better solutions for the implementation and control of fishing, weighing and registration of catches with the aim of increasing efficiency, effectiveness and reducing waste in all processes.

Ögmundur H. Knútsson was Director general of the Directorate of Fisheries in 2023, but he resigned at the beginning of 2024, and the Director's address is therefore written by Elín Björg Ragnarsdóttir, who was appointed Director general of the Directorate of Fisheries by Bjarkey Olsen Gunnarsdóttur, Minister of Food, Fisheries and Agriculture from 1st of June 2024. The Directorate of Fisheries thanks Ögmundur for his good work and wishes him well in his new job at the World Bank Group. Ögmundur laid the foundation for the development of the Directorate of Fisheries with increased use of digital technology solutions, data-driven monitoring and updating of the institution's older systems that the institution will thrive on.

Elín Björg Ragnarsdóttir.
Director general