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Norway has announced the regulation of fishing for blue whiting in 2022 with 146,054 tonnes available to be fished in EU/Irish waters
The Norwegian Minister of Fisheries has announced the regulation of fishing for blue whiting in 2022 with a quota of nearly 200,000 tonnes available to their fleet.
In the coastal state negotiations on blue whiting earlier this autumn, it was agreed to set a total allowable catch (TAC) of 752,736 tonnes in 2022. This was in line with the advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).
The total quota includes an allocation to the Northeast Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) for other countries’ fishing in international waters of 59,910 tonnes.
“Norway has related to a Norwegian traditional share of the total quota for blue whiting since 2016, and we will relate to it also in 2022,” says Minister of Fisheries and Marine Affairs Bjørnar Skjæran, in a press release from the Ministry of Trade and Fisheries.
The Norwegian traditional share is 26.245 percent of the total quota. Norway’s share of the total quota is thus 200,230 tonnes in 2022.
Research quota
Of the total quota, it has been decided to set aside 1,030 tonnes for research and teaching purposes. In addition, in the fisheries negotiations in the Joint Norwegian Russian Fisheries Commission, Norway exchanged 13,102 tonnes of blue whiting for Russia in 2022.
The regulation of blue whiting has worked well in recent years, and the Norwegian blue whiting quota is distributed in the same way as in previous years, with 78 per cent to the blue whiting trawl group and 22 per cent to the pelagic trawl / North Sea trawl group.
According to the fisheries agreements that Norway has entered into with the Faroe Islands and the EU for 2022, Norwegian vessels can fish 31,920 tonnes of blue whiting in Faroese waters and 146,054 tonnes of blue whiting in EU/Irish waters in 2022.
Satisfied Minister of Fisheries
“We are pleased that we have agreements in place that give Norwegian vessels the opportunity to fish the Norwegian quota in the waters that are best for both the stock and the fleet,” says Bjørnar Skjæran.
