Fisheries: cooperation between the UK and Norway
Published 13 January 2022
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The United Kingdom and Norway fully share a commitment to cooperate with a view to achieving the objective of ensuring the long-term conservation and sustainable use of marine living resources. To this end, the United Kingdom and Norway have reached the following understanding. This understanding is without prejudice to the United Kingdom’s and Norway’s interpretations of the Treaty of Paris and to their rights under Part VII of UNCLOS.
The United Kingdom and Norway are both committed to sustainable fisheries management through the discharge of their respective international obligations under provisions of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“UNCLOS”) and related international instruments, regional fisheries management organisations and other international instruments relating to management of fisheries. It is the right and responsibility of the coastal State to regulate the conservation and management of marine living resources in areas where it has sovereign rights in accordance with international law.
The United Kingdom recognises Norway’s sovereignty over the archipelago of Svalbard and its sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the Fisheries Protection Zone around Svalbard in accordance with UNCLOS. The United Kingdom and Norway note the United Kingdom’s longstanding interest in the Arctic region.
The United Kingdom also acknowledges that the established fisheries management regime in the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) areas 1 and 2 in waters north of the 62 degree line over decades has secured the sustainable management of marine living resources, thus ensuring the interests of the fishing vessels, including vessels from states harvesting from these resources on the basis of quotas allocated by the coastal States.
In the spirit of continued cooperation regarding sustainable fisheries and taking into account the United Kingdom’s long-term interests in the Arctic region, Norway will allocate a quota of cod to the United Kingdom calculated as 0.9432% of the reference Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for the relevant year. For 2022, this equates to 6,550 tonnes. This quota will be allocated outside any bilateral fisheries agreement between Norway and the United Kingdom. Save for exceptional circumstances, Norway will continue to allocate the quota of cod under this arrangement on the basis that the United Kingdom carries out the provisions of this text.
In the same spirit of collaboration regarding sustainable fishing, the United Kingdom will not authorise vessels flying the flag of the United Kingdom in ICES areas 1 and 2 to fish for species and quotas, other than those allocated to the United Kingdom by the coastal States in the area, without cooperating and consulting with those coastal States. This commitment does not apply to fishing in ICES area 2 on stocks to which the United Kingdom is a coastal State.