In spring 2009 the minister of fisheries announced a plan of deferring the regional quota's allocation to give flexibility for a new policy of supporting and stimulating the labor market in the small fishing communities all around the country. This was done by introducing commercial coastal fishing. This new category of fisheries was given the title strandveiðar/Coastal Fisheries and was intended to be free, but also responsible and sustainable, opening the fisheries to new-comers and stimulating the labor market and life in the small fishing communities along the Icelandic coast.

In late summer 2009 the Directorate of Fisheries on behalf of the Ministry of Fisheries contacted the University Centre of the Westfjords with the request of conducting a survey on the outcome of this pilot project. Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, then program director of the Coastal and Marine Management master's program, overviewed the project. A part of the survey, mostly data collection, was conducted in cooperation with five research centres in other parts of the country. One of the Coastal and marine management program's master's students, Gísli Halldórsson, took part in this work and used the data for his master's thesis.

The survey was published in January 2010 and can be downloaded here (only in Icelandic)

Gísli Halldórson's Master's thesis has been available on the internet since spring 2010 here (in Icelandic).