Russia has continued to fish declining redfish stocks in the Irminger Sea, even as scientists recommend a complete halt to such fishing and Russia itself has made promises to stop the practice.
In 2023, Russia caught over 24,000 metric tons (MT) of the threatened stock in the Irminger Sea, which is near Greenland and Iceland, despite having promised in the past to quit the practice as a “gesture of goodwill.”
Russia also continued to fish in 2024, but those numbers will not be officially publicly available until November, when the Northeast Atlantic Fisheries Commission holds its annual meeting.
In March 2022, Russia was suspended from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) over its invasion of Ukraine – and has since withdrawn entirely.
Kristján Kristinsson, a biologist at the Icelandic Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, said that Russia is no longer sharing data on fisheries with ICES.
"We conducted a survey in the Irminger Sea last summer, and usually the Russians are conducting the survey with us. We don’t get biological data from them anymore. That definitely has an impact," Kristinsson said but explained that the nation still provides catch data to the Northeast Atlantic Fisheries Commission – the regional fisheries management organization that regulates fisheries in the area.
Redfish are especially vulnerable to overfishing …
