Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF), conservative group, fears it will be difficult to renew Greenland’s agreement in 2012 banning the commercial fishing of large Atlantic salmon. Because fishermen of Greenland are complaining that the stocks of salmon in their coats are increasing o they are insisting not to sign the ban agreement. ASF said that if the deal fails to renew at next year’s annual meeting of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO), then the large salmon that feed off Greenland but return to spawn in North American rivers will suffer.
NASCO consists of countries where large Atlantic salmon spawn or migrate, such as Canada, the US and Denmark, which represents Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Sue Scott, a federation spokesperson who attended a recent NASCO meeting, said that all those gains that we inched ahead on … all the gains of the Greenlanders not fishing, we will lose them.
Group chairman Leif Fontaine told NASCO that efforts in Greenland to restore salmon stocks had been fruitful, and that wild Atlantic salmon were being occasionally caught as bycatch in some areas during winter. Alfred Jakobsen, the group’s director, said that fishermen here have sacrificed so much in the past 10, 15, 20 years and they also base their views on the fact that there is a lot of salmon, wild Atlantic salmon, there in the sea right now. Peter Hutchinson, assistant secretary of NASCO, countered that this year’s scientific advice clearly reiterated that stocks remain low.
