The 44th annual meeting of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO) took place recently with its first post-Covid face-to-face gathering.
The meeting was conducted in a hybrid format for the first time in its history allowing participation both in-person and virtually.
During the meeting, NAFO made significant progress in further developing its ecosystem approach framework to fisheries management by adopting an ecosystem reference point (“total catch index” or “TCI”) to complement stock assessments and to help inform management decisions regarding the potential risk of ecosystem overfishing.
NAFO also recognised that significant progress was made this year on its revision of its precautionary approach framework, which is a priority for the organisation, despite difficulties arising from the pandemic. This revision is expected to be finalised at the September 2024 annual meeting.
At this 44th annual meeting, Brynhildur Benediktsdóttir was appointed as the new executive secretary for a four-year term, taking up her post in Halifax in January 2023.
She is a trained economist and also studied international maritime law, and has recently completed a master’s degree in business at the University of Akureyri. She has many years of experience in the seafood sector, has been a specialist and negotiator attached to the Icelandic Ministry of Fisheries since 2008, and has represented Iceland and led missions in international fisheries negotiations, as well as having been active in domestic fisheries management.
