Regulatory measures

The Commission agreed regulatory measures for fishing of salmon at West Greenland in the years 1998, 1999 and 2000.

In 1998 the scientific advice from ICES stated that:

• the pre-fishery abundance of non-maturing multi-sea-winter salmon    from southern European stocks had been declining steadily for about ten years.  Present analyses suggest that the pre-fishery abundance reached a historic minimum in 1996 and with the current trend could fall below the preliminary conservation limit in 1998;
   
• for stocks originating in North America, estimates of pre-fishery abundance of non-maturing one-sea-winter salmon provided a value for 1996 that is the lowest on record.

In the light of this advice, the Commission agreed that, for 1998 only, the catch at West Greenland would be restricted to that amount used for internal consumption in Greenland, which in the past had been estimated at 20 tonnes.  The Parties commended Greenland for the improvement in its monitoring and reporting procedures and encouraged further improvements.

The total catch at West Greenland in 1998 was 11 tonnes.  In 1999 the Commission became aware that recent articles in angling magazines had alleged that wild salmon from Greenland were on sale in Switzerland and Denmark.  Export of wild salmon caught at Greenland would be contrary to the NASCO regulatory measure and Greenland Home Rule Government regulations.  Information provided by the United States and Denmark indicated, however, that the "wild" salmon on sale in Denmark was Norwegian farmed salmon, and that on sale in Switzerland was Icelandic ranched salmon.  Moreover, statistics from the Government of Switzerland indicated that there have been no imports of salmon from Greenland in the last two years. 

In 1999, the scientific advice from ICES indicated that:

• stocks originating in the southern component of the North-East Atlantic are considered to be outside safe biological limits, and that extreme caution should be exercised in the management of mixed stock fisheries exploiting these stocks;
   
• stocks originating in North America are outside safe biological limits.  Fishing mortality of multi-sea-winter fish should be minimised, except for in-river harvests from those stocks which are above biologically-based escapement requirements.

Taking into account these very serious circumstances the Commission agreed that for 1999 and 2000 the catch at West Greenland in each of these years will be restricted to that amount used for internal consumption in Greenland, which in the past has been estimated at 20 tonnes.  There will continue to be no commercial export of salmon.  The Parties commended Greenland for the continued improvement in its monitoring and reporting procedures, in order to respect the aforementioned amount.