The joint Russian-Norwegian Fisheries Commission is planning to increase the permissible catch of cod in the Barents Sea to a level above scientific advice.
According to Russian Federal Fisheries Agency (Rosrybolovstvo) Head Ilya Shestakov, the commission proposed the increase during its recent meeting in Istanbul.
"We traditionally hold this commission meeting ahead of the next fishing year. We determine the volumes allocated to Russia and Norway as part of joint stock management in the Barents and Norwegian seas,” Shestakov said in a release. “For cod, we decided to increase the total allowable catch [TAC] next year by 14 percent.”
That would be the first increase after five years of cod quota reductions. The TAC was set to 285,000 metric tons (MT) in 2026, which was a reduction on the prior year but was also above the 269,550 MT TAC that was suggested by the Russian-Norwegian Arctic Fisheries Working Group. Based on the prior year, the increase for 2027 proposed by the group would set the TAC at 324,900 MT – again above scientific advice.
In June, the Russian-Norwegian Arctic Fisheries Working Group released recommendations for a modest increase to the Barents Sea cod quota, suggesting the TAC for 2027 should be no more than 312,667 MT – a 16 percent increase over its advice for 2026. Rosrybolovstvo said the two countries later agreed on the higher 324,900 MT number, marking the second year in a row the countries have deviated from scientific advice.
The increase follows similar Russian calls for an increase of the 2026 quota, with the Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) proposing a 315,033-MT TAC for the year, well above the 269,550 MT suggested by the joint working group.
At the time, Rosrybolovstvo said VNIRO uses different calculations and that the decline in cod stocks had stopped. Ultimately, the countries went with the lower 285,000 MT number, which was higher than the scientific advice but still a reduction from the TAC in 2025.
Rosrybolovstvo said the commission is still negotiating TACs for multiple other fisheries including haddock, capelin, and halibut. The working group had recommended increases for both haddock and Greenland halibut – increasing by 18 percent to 180,336 MT and by 32 percent to 19,610 MT, respectively.
