Norway’s cod trawler fleet has agreed to extend a self-imposed ban on fishing in vulnerable areas of the Barents Sea until a full scientific survey of the seabed has been completed.
The Norwegian fleet agreed in May it would not expand cod fishing activity into previously untouched areas of the Barents until there was robust scientific evidence doing so would not harm the marine environment.
The agreement, supported by UK processors and supermarkets, followed a Greenpeace report raising concerns that melting sea ice was enabling bottom trawlers to move further into the northern Barents Sea, posing a danger to vulnerable marine habitats.
Under new proposals presented at a roundtable event in London this week, the Norwegian Fishing Vessel Owners Association confirmed fishing activity would not be expanded into previously untouched areas until a “systematic scientific survey” of the seabed had been carried out.
“These huge areas are not formally protected from fishing through regulation, but our Norwegian trawlers will voluntarily refrain from fishing there until the seabed has been mapped by the Norwegian authorities, and their recognised experts confirm that the sites will not be vulnerable to trawling”, said Jan Ivar Maråk from the Norwegian Fishing Vessels Owners Association.
It is expected that foreign trawlers with quota rights in the northern Barents sea, such as those from Russia, EU, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland, will also respect the agreement.
“Customers buying Norwegian cod can be confident that it is sustainably fished today, and that it will be sustainably managed and fished in the future,” Maråk added.
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