---
title: "Nygaard and Christiansen assess wolffish in NAFO subarea 1; increasing spotted wolffish biomass"
sdDatePublished: "2026-08-08T14:34:00Z"
source: "https://www.nafo.int/Portals/0/PDFs/sc/2026/scr26-025.pdf"
topics:
  - name: "fishing"
    identifier: "medtop:20000561"
locations:
  - "Greenland"
  - "Germany"
---


Nygaard and Christiansen assess wolffish in NAFO subarea 1; increasing spotted wolffish biomass

Assessment of wolffish in NAFO subarea 1

Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization

www.nafo.int

Serial No. N7745

NAFO SCR Doc. 26/025
SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL MEETING – JUNE 2026

An assessment of wolffish in NAFO subarea 1.

Rasmus Nygaard1, Henrik Christiansen1
1Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Box 570, 3900 Nuuk, Greenland
2026-05-31

NYGAARD, R., & CHRISTIANSEN, H. 2026. An assessment of wolffish in NAFO subarea 1. NAFO Scientific
Council Research Document, SCR Doc. 26/025: 1-12.

Abstract

There are three species of wolffish in Greenland waters, Atlantic wolffish (Anarhichas lupus), spotted wolffish
(Anarhichas minor) and Northern wolffish (Anarhichas denticulatus), but only the two first are of commercial
interest. Although the species are easily distinguishable from one another reporting and catch statistics rarely
distinguish catch at a species level but aggregate catch as unspecified wolffish (CAT). In 2025 the vast majority
of the logbook reported catches actually distinguish catch at a species level. However, a historical separation of
the catch statics on a species level, may prove difficult, although some observations of the species composition
have been made through research work and exists in the literature. Commercial fishery targeting wolffish
started in the 1928, but significant landings were not seen until after World War II. Initially, wolffish were
targeted inshore for production of wolffish skin. In 1951 production of frozen filets started and reported
landings increased to a level of 5000-6000 tons. With the failing cod fishery off West Greenland trawlers started
targeting Atlantic wolffish on the banks off West Greenland and from 1974-1976 reported landings from
trawlers were around 3000 tons per year. During the 1980’s reported catches gradually decreased, and landings
were at a very low level during the 1990’s. From 2003 landings gradually increased and stabilized at a level of
around 1000 tons, mainly spotted wolffish landed from small vessels and open boats to factories in division 1A
B and C and remained at this level until 2014. Since 2015, reported catches have decreased and around 200
tonnes/year but rising in 2025 mainly due to increase longline fishery in division 1A.
Two surveys covers the stock of wolffish in NAFO 1A. The surveys have both registered an increasing spotted
wolffish biomass in the recent decade. The difference between the survey indices for Atlantic wolffish can
largely be explained by differences in survey area where the increase in the Greenland SFW survey is mainly
observed north of the EU-Germany survey area. In the Greenland Shrimp and fish survey, the abundance index
of both species seem to increase at a steady rate.

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Introduction

Three species of wolffish occur in Greenland waters, Atlantic wolffish (Anarhichas lupus), spotted wolffish
(Anarhichas minor) and Northern wolffish (Anarhichas denticulatus). Only the first two (spotted wolffish and
Atlantic wolffish) are of commercial interest. Spotted wolffish has a larger Lmax length than Atlantic wolffish and
the individual growth rate for Atlantic wolffish is slower than for Spotted wolffish in subarea 1 (Beese and
Känder 1969, Schmidt 1980). Although spotted and Atlantic wolffish are easily distinguishable from one
another (spotted wolffish has spots, and Atlantic wolffish has stripes), the fishing industry and catch statistics
have rarely distinguished between the two species in landing reports or logbooks. A historical separation of the
catch statics on a species level, may prove difficult, although some observations of the species composition have
been made through research work. A thorough breakdown of the catches on a species level and inshore offshore
areas might improve the knowledge about the distribution of the species (see also Riget F.F. 1985). Research
performed by Greenland and Federal Republic of Germany (Beese and Kändler, 1969), revealed an almost
complete absence of Atlantic wolffish in landings and research fishery from division 1A and 1B in 1957 and
1960, but a dominance of Atlantic wolffish in division 1C in 1976 (99% by weight, depth 70-90 meters) and 1D
in 1980 (58% by weight, depth 300-500 meters) (Schmidt 1980). Therefore, the breakdown of the catches by
division gives some indication of species composition as Atlantic wolffish has a more southern distribution and
seems more connected to the shallow offshore banks. Spotted wolffish can be found in all divisions offshore and
through survey and landing observations, still seems to be the dominant species in the fjords. However, Atlantic
wolffish has shifted its distribution further north during the past decade (SCR 26-011) and can be found as far
north as the Upernavik district. Atlantic wolffish has also been observed in surveys in the Disko bay (1A inshore)
and Sisimiut (1B inshore). Logbook catches in 2025 were actually reported at a species level and the vast
majority of the catch was Spotted wolffish.
Description of the Fisheries

From 1928, small catches of wolffish from Greenland waters were landed by British fishing vessels. However,
the commercial fishery for wolffish in West Greenland started around 1938 and was originally based on the
production of wolffish skins (mostly spotted wolffish) while the meat was used locally. Production of skins
stopped during WWII but resumed in 1945 and peaked in 1948 with a production of more than 100.000 wolffish
skins equivalent of about 800 tons (table 1, fig 1). In 1951, a production of frozen fillets started and developed
to an important production in the Maniitsoq area (div. 1C) and the fishery gradually spread to the northern
inshore areas (Divisions 1A-1B). The fishery was carried out by longliners as a directed fishery targeting mainly
spotted wolffish. Annual landings reached a level of more than 5000 tons by 1957 and stayed at this level of
4000 to 6000 until 1970. With the failing cod fishery off West Greenland trawlers started targeting Atlantic
wolffish on the banks off West Greenland and from 1974-1976 reported landings from trawlers were around
3000 tons per year (Schmidt 1980). The highest Statlant 21A reported catches occurred in 1977-1979, but in
these years non-Greenlandic vessels were excluded from the valuable cod fishery on the banks off West
Greenland and massive misreporting were documented (cod reported as American plaice, wolffish or other
species). The corrected landings in these years are much lower than official landing statistics (Horsted 1980).
After 1980 the cod fishery gradually decreased from West Greenland and catches of wolffish also decreased in
this period. The Gradual shift from cod to shrimp fishery may however have caused a substantial amount of
discarded wolffish taken and discarded in the shrimp fishery. A study of by-catch in the shrimp fishery
conducted in 1994 indicated a low by-catch of spotted wolffish in all divisions and than by-catch of Atlantic
wolffish where low and mainly occurred in the southernmost divisions (Engelstoft 1996). However, survey
indices of wolffish were at a low level during the 1990’s. To minimize by-catch in the shrimp fishery, offshore
shrimp trawlers has been equipped with grid separators since 2002 (G.H. 2001) and the grid separators have
been mandatory for inshore operating vessels since 2011 (G.S. 2011). After the implementation of the sorting
grids, studies of by-catch in the shrimp fishery indicated very low bycatches of wolffish in the shrimp fishery

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when using the grid separators (Sünksen 2007). The study does not provide length distributions, but the
estimated amounts were converted to total estimates of wolffish to be around 15 tons of Atlantic wolffish
(~0,01%), 1,5 tons of spotted wolffish (~0,001%) and less than 0,2 tons of northern wolffish (~0,0001%) in
2007. From 2003 catches gradually increased and stabilized at a level of around 1000 tons, mainly spotted
wolffish landed from small vessels and open boats to factories in division 1A-C and remained at this level until
2014. In 2015, reported catch decreased and have remained at a level around 200 tonnes annually since then.
In 2025, Catches increased to 338 tonnes, and the increase was mainly due to longliners targeting cod in division
1D.
Commercial fishery data

Data on length distribution in catches are rarely available from wolffish. Discrepancy between the species is not
always done in logbooks or factory landings data and wolffish are often reported as wolffish sp. (“CAT”). Factory
landing data and logbook data for both species combined was available (table 1 and fig 1).
Research Survey data

There are two surveys partly covering the stocks of Atlantic wolffish and spotted wolffish in subarea 1. The EU-
Germany (EU-G) survey (SCR 20-052) and Greenland Shrimp Fish (SFW) survey in West Greenland (SCR 26-
011). Survey biomass and abundance indices are summarized in table 2 for both surveys.
The EU-G survey started in 1982 and covers the shelf at East Greenland (ICES14) continuing to the southern
part of West Greenland (1C-F, depth 0-400m). The EU-G survey has had limited coverage of the Greenland West
coast in recent years in the recent decade. The Greenland Shrimp and Fish Survey (Greenland SFW) was fully
implemented in 1992 and covers the Shelf at Westgreenland from 72N to the south tip of Greenland Cape
farewell (NAFO 1A-1F, depth 0-600m. The Gear was changed in the Greenland SFW survey from an older
commercial type shrimp trawl (skjaervoy) to a more modern and slightly larger commercial shrimp trawl with
rockhopper gear (Cosmos 2600) thereby breaking the timeseries and restarting the index in 2005. Due to vessel
decommission of the R/V Paamiut, chartered commercial vessels completed the survey in 2018 (Sjodürberg)
and 2019-2020 (Helga Maria). Since 2022 the new research vessel R/V Tarajoq has completed the survey. All
chartered vessels used the gear from the previously used research vessel (RV Pâmiut) and the Tarajoq continues
the survey time series with the Cosmos trawl. Examinations of gear parameters found that the effects of these
vessel changes had a minimal effect on trawl performance (Nogueira and Treble 2020 and Nogueira and
Christiansen, 2023).
Both surveys are appropriate in regards to main depth distribution of Atlantic and spotted wolffish, but the
Greenland Shrimp and Fish Survey, has a larger and better geographical coverage in relation to wolffish.

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Results (Atlantic wolffish)

The EU-G Abundance index of Atlantic wolffish was stable from 1982 to 2005 and then gradually decreased
(figure 2). The Biomass index decreased substantially from 1982 to 1984 and the decreased continued until the
late 1990’s. The Greenland SFW survey biomass index has slowly increased both prior to and after the gear
change in 2005 and the abundance index has gradually increased throughout the time series (disregard the two
extreme outlier years 2005 and 2015) although decreasing slightly in 2024 and 2025 (figure 2). The indices
both before and after the gear change and with chartered vessels and Tarajoq seems well connected without
calibration factors (figure 2).

The differing trends observed in the EU-Germany survey and the Greenland shrimp and fish survey can largely
be explained with the difference in survey area. The increase in the indices observed in Greenland shrimp and
fish survey are mainly observed in divisions 1A-B and therefore outside the EU-Germany survey area (figure 4).
Therefore, the stagnant indices observed in the EU-Germany survey could be due to either reduced survey
coverage or a shift in