The 2018 quotas for catches of cod, haddock, capelin, Greenland halibut and redfish have been agreed by Russia and Norway.
The quota for north-east Arctic cod was set at 775,000 metric tons (MT) for next year, divided between Russia, Norway and third party nations along the same lines as in previous years.
In 2017, the Barents Sea cod quota was 890,000 MT.
A cod catch reduction had been expected by the sector with the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) earlier this year recommending that the quota for 2018 should not exceed 712,000 MT.
The 2018 haddock quota is set at 202,305 MT.
Next year also sees the return of a commercial fishery for capelin for the first time since 2015, with a 205,000 MT quota.
Meanwhile, the Greenland halibut quota is set at 27,000 MT, a 3,000 MT increase on this year’s allocation and the redfish quota is 32,658 MT, up 2,658 MT.
The fisheries agreement between the two countries also incorporates technical regulations covering fishing, control systems and co-operation on marine research, which continues the long-running collaboration in the Barents Sea. A new joint research program for 2018 was also agreed with improved conditions for mapping fish stocks across each other’s zones.
