An agreement between the Faroe Islands and Norway will allow Norwegian fishing vessels to tale 2500 tonnes of ling and blue ling, 2000 tonnes of tusk and 800 tonnes of by-catch in Faroese waters, as well as 6600 tonnes of mackerel that can be taken in Faroese, Norwegian or international waters.
In return, Faroese vessels get 4945 tonnes of cod, 1100 tonnes of haddock, 500 tonnes of saithe and 400 tonnes of other species as by-catch in the Norwegian EEZ. In addition, Faroese vessels can catch up to 3450 tonnes of cod and 300 tonnes of haddock through a swap agreement with Russia, while Norwegian vessels can fish up to 30,000 tonnes of the 2020 Norwegian blue whiting quota in Faroese waters.
‘The quotas that we exchange with the Faroe Islands are important for Norwegian fishermen. It’s good that we have an agreement in place that gives Norwegian fishermen quotas and access to the Faroese zone also in 2020,’ said Norwegian Minister for Fisheries and Seafood Harald T. Nesvik.
The Faroese agreement with Norway follows an agreement with the EU on mutual access that gives EU vessels access to 885 tonnes of cod and haddock, 2600 tonnes of saithe, 100 tonnes of redfish, 1885 tonnes of blue ling and ling, 50 tonnes of flatfish species, 2500 tonnes of blue whiting and 700 tonnes of other species in Faroese waters.
In exchange, the Faroe Islands get 200 tonnes of ling and tusk, 150 tonnes of blue ling, 1600 tonnes of horse mackerel, 5000 tonnes of Norway pout, 10,000 tonnes of blue whiting, 1000 tonnes of sprat, 150 tonnes of other whitefish species, 250 tonnes of herring, 1200 tonnes of shrimp and 110 tonnes of Greenland halibut.
The Faroe Islands and the EU have also agreed reciprocal access to each other’s waters for 34,856 tonnes of mackerel, 7000 tonnes of Atlanto-Scandian herring and 37,500 tonnes of blue whiting.
The Faroe Islands’ agreement with Russia for 2020 fisheries maintains the Faroese quotas of 15,690 tonnes of cod, 1569 tonnes of haddock and 900 tonnes of flatfish in Russian waters unchanged, while the Faroese shrimp quota in Russian waters is reduced by 500 tonnes to a 4500 tonne quota.
The Russian fleet gets an 82,000 tonne blue whiting quota in Faroese waters, up 1000 tonnes on the 2019 figure, and other quotas remain unchanged.
