Large-scale fisheries during the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of the oceangoing groundfish fleet in Norway

Abstract

Small-scale fisheries have received most of the attention in the literature investigating negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on seafood production. Larger fishing vessels are often perceived to be more resilient as they are better able to alter harvest patterns in response to supply shocks than smaller, less mobile vessels. In addition, larger fishing vessels often deliver storable frozen products contributing to resiliency. The supply and demand shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to test this hypothesis and is investigated here on the large-scale groundfish fleet in Norway. The results indicate that during the first two whole years of the pandemic the impact on price was small, but also that there were several secondary effects showing how negative shocks in some supply chains/markets are overcome.