Reykjavík Harbour & the country’s other ports

Iceland is an island. Through the centuries, the maritime industry has been a staple of the Icelandic economy. And still is. The harbour of Reykjavík, which Icelandic Times/Land & Saga visited in the clear weather today, is the fifth largest shipping port in the country. The largest harbours have pelagic fish such as herring, mackerel and shad. But the Port of Reykjavík scores highly in terms of value, as a lot of big fish such as cod and haddock are landed and are more valuable products. By far the largest port in the country is in Neskaupsstaður, where 80 million kg were landed last year. Vestmannaeyjar is next with 60.5 million kg. Then comes Eskifjörður with 46.5 mkg, Vopnafjörður with 39 mkg, and in fifth place is Reykjavík with 32 million kilos of fish. After that comes Seyðisfjörður with 28 mkg, Höfn i Hornafjörður with 27 mkg, and then Hafnarfjörður with 25 mkg. In the top eight there are five places in the East, one in the South, and two in the southwest corner. In ninth place is Fáskrúðsfjörður also in the east with 19 mkg, and then tenth place is shared by two places in the North, Sauðárkrókur and Þórshöfn in Langanes with over 12 million kilos. It is surprising that no place in Vesturland or the Vestfjords is on the list. But both Snæfellsnes, Ísafjörður and Patreksfjörður and Bolungarvík in the Vestfjords are well-known fishing towns. Changing times, changed landscape in fishing. The pictures, moods from Reykjavík port today. No need for captions, the pictures say more than ten thousand words.