A third round of negotiations between coastal states this year has not moved the parties any closer to an agreement, other than to agree to meet again in the autumn with the hope of finding a formula for the 2024 fishery.
The Norwegian Fishermen’s Associatin reports that talks that took place in Iceland at the end of last month reached no concrete conclusions. This was attended by delagations from Norway, Iceland, thhe Faroe Islands, the UK and Russia as the negotiating parties, with the European Union and Greenland present as observers.
There has since 2012 been no agreement between the coastal states that applies to both the TAC and the distribution of the TAC between the coastal states, some of which have since 2013 set autonomous quotas in line with what they themselves judge to be their rightful share of the fishery – and invariably these add up to significantly more than the agreed TAC.
Between 2017 and the present, the coastal states have been in agreement on the TAC for Atlanto-Scandian herring, but have consistently failed to agree on how this should be divided.
According to the Norwegian Fishermen’s Association there is an urgency to reaching an agreement on distribution, and that a realistic position needs to be adopted, stating that zonal attachment needs to be a strong factor in concluding a solution to sharing out the fishery among the interested coastal states.
