By 1986, less than 5,000 tonnes catch weight of groundfish were processed this way but in 1999 about 145,000 tonnes of groundfish were processed and frozen on board. This is a third of the groundfish catch. Similarly, over a third of the flatfish catch and almost half of the shrimp catch is frozen at sea. There are currently some 60 freezer trawlers in the Icelandic fleet. They are specialised for either groundfish or shrimp processing.
Most land based factories are also modern and technically well equipped.
In recent years there have been many mergers of land based freezing plants and this has led to many of the older plants being made redundant. There are currently about 150 plants with a processing permit. These plants are supplied by fishing vessels ranging from large wetfish trawlers to small boats fishing with handline. Shrimp processing Fillet production After gutting and washing the fish is iced and kept in chilled store at sea and on shore to preserve raw material quality. In the freezing process the fish is first washed, headed and machine filleted.