Agreement has been reached between Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands over the division of the 2017-18 capelin season.
ICES has yet to publish its recommendations on the overall quota for the next season, although a zero quota recommendation would not be a surprise. This was the case for the 2016-17 season, although a couple of last-minute research surveys confirmed that there was in fact a strong capelin migration taking place and the fishery finally came to 300,000 tonnes.
Iceland is currently boosting its research efforts to establish the strength of the expected capelin migration through Icelandic waters, carrying out research further north in the Jan Mayen zone and in Greenland’s EEZ. Iceland has been pushing for Norway and Greenland to contribute more to research, and this is happening in Norway.
The quota shares remain unchanged, with 81% allocated to Iceland. Norway gets 8% of the quota and 11 % goes to Greenland.
There has been discussion on the share split and Greenland has made it known that it feels a larger share is deserved, but there will be no changes in the coming season.
According to Norwegian vessel owners’s federation Fiskebåt, 30 Norwegian vessels will be able to operate in Icelandic waters at a time.
‘In general, we are satisfied with this result,’ said Fiskebåt director Audun Maråk, who took part in the negotiations on behalf of the industry.
