A total of 1,621 fishing vessels were registered at the Icelandic Transport Authority at the end of 2017, 26 ships fewer than in the previous year. The Transport Authority divides fishing vessels into three classes, undecked vessels, decked vessels and trawlers, where some decked ships have more gross tonnage than the largest trawlers. The number of decked vessels was 735 and their combined size was 92,460 gross tonnages (GT). The number of decked vessels reduced by 12 between years and the total size decreased by 2,046 GT. The number of trawlers was 44, one more than in the previous year, but six new trawlers were registered in 2017. Gross tonnage of the trawler fleet was 61,841 tonnes and increased by 9,425 tonnes. The number of registered undecked vessels was 842 at the end of 2017 and a total of 4,154 GT.
In the last 5 years, 70 vessels were registered as new. Eight trawlers, 37 decked vessels and 25 undecked vessels. 53 of these were built in Iceland, all with fiberglass hulls and less than 30 GT. All of the trawlers and four of the seven decked vessels larger than 1000 GT were built in Turkey.
About 24% of the vessels were registered in the Westfjords, a total of 394 ships. Eight trawlers were registered in the Capital region and eleven in the Northeast.
