Next year’s Barents Sea cod catch should not exceed 698,672 metric tons (MT), according to the latest recommendation from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). This new advice represents a 2 percent increase on the 674,678 MT proposed for 2019 by the science organization.
ICES has also recommended a haddock total allowable catch (TAC) of 215,000 MT for 2020, up 41 percent on its advice for this year.
While the haddock catch limit recommended by ICES is also 25 percent more than the final 2019 TAC of 172,000 MT set by the Norwegian-Russian Joint Fishery Commission, the new cod TAC is 5 percent less than the 725,000 MT that was agreed for this year.
The Barents Sea cod stock peaked around nine years ago with the TAC subsequently set at a record 1 million MT in 2013. There has been a gradual decrease in quotas in the years since.
Elsewhere, ICES has recommended that Iceland’s cod quota for the next season should not exceed 272,411 MT (up from 264,437 MT in 2018/2019), while its haddock TAC should be no more than 41,823 MT (down from 57,982 MT).
