Next year’s Barents Sea cod catch can increase to 885,600 metric tons (MT), according to the latest recommendation from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).
This new advice represents a 28 percent increase on the 698,672 MT proposed for 2020 by the science organization and 20 percent more than the agreed total allowable catch (TAC) of 738,000 MT.
The cod advice given this year is higher than last year, mostly due to an upwards revision of age groups 5–10 in this year’s assessment, ICES said.
ICES has also recommended a haddock total allowable catch (TAC) of 232,537 MT for 2021, up 8.2 percent on this year’s advised limit of 215,000 MT.
According to the international council, fishing pressure on the haddock stock is above maximum sustainable yield (MSY) but is being harvested sustainably, while the spawning stock size exceeds the desired reference points.
The Barents Sea cod stock peaked around 10 years ago with the TAC subsequently set at a record 1 million MT in 2013. Haddock stocks also reached an all-time high level in 2013 and then began to decrease.
Final quotas will be set by by the Norwegian-Russian Joint Fishery Commission. This bilateral fisheries management body was established in 1976 to manage cod, haddock and capelin stocks in the Barents Sea with advice provided by the Norwegian Marine Research Institute and the Russian PINRO institute.
Photo courtesy of Grigorev Mikhail/Shutterstock
