Norwegian Management of Living Marine Resources
The fisheries industry is the backbone of coastal Norway. In the year 2000, Norway is exporting fish and fish products worth more than NOK 32 billion to more than 150 countries. More than half of the export value stems from capture fisheries, most of which are based on fish stocks that are shared with other countries and require international cooperation in their management.
By Alf Håkon Hoel, with contributions from the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen
A defining characteristic of the Norwegian fishing industry is therefore its international orientation. Fish stocks are shared with other countries and most of the fish landed is exported.
1. Sustainable use of living marine resources: An international requirement
The overriding goal of Norwegian fisheries management is the sustainable utilisation of living marine resources. The crucial elements of fisheries management are the knowledge base of management, the regulations of fishing activity and the enforcement of these regulations.
The objective of sustainable use of living marine resources is firmly rooted in international requirements to fisheries management. The 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention commits countries to sustainable management practices, and the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Convention as well as the 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries requires states to ensure the sustainability of their fish stocks. To give effect to this aim, a precautionary approach set out in the latter agreements is applied.
Basically the sustainable use of living marine resources requires that the harvest taken from a fish stock does not exceed the ability of that stock to replenish itself. But climate change and other physical factors may affect the stocks of fish and marine mammals. In addition, various species tend to influence each other. Marine mammals, for example, prey upon fish and consume substantial quantities of commercially valuable fish. The status of a fish stock is thus determined not only by fishing, but also by natural factors.
2. Norwegian fisheries: The management regime
The fishing industry in Norway is divided into a marine and an aquaculture sector. The former employs some 15 000 fishermen at sea and an additional 12 000 people working in the 500 fish processing plants along the coast. The aquaculture industry employs some 6 000 people, with fish farms all along the North Norwegian coast. In the marine sector, the most important fish species by value is cod followed by mackerel and herring. The European Union is the major market outlet.
Most of the Norwegian fish harvest is taken in the Norwegian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), established in 1977 in response to developments in international ocean law at the time. The EEZ was supplemented by a Fisheries Conservation Zone around Svalbard and a Fisheries Zone around Jan Mayen. The waters under Norwegian jurisdiction thus cover some 2 million square kilometers more than six times the area of mainland Norway. The fisheries take place in three main areas. the Barents Sea/Svalbard and the North Norwegian coast, the Norwegian Sea and the North Sea. In addition some fisheries are taking place near Jan Mayen and in other countries¹ EEZs, mainly off Ireland and in the North Sea. The EEZ extends to 200 nautical miles, or 320 kilometers.
The boundaries of the EEZ and the fisheries zones define the range of the authority of coastal states to manage fish stocks. Many stocks of living marine resources tend to move between the zones of several states. Cooperation on their management is therefore essential to ensure their sustainable use. This applies for instance to Arctic cod, which is found both in Norwegian and Russian waters. Norway has negotiated a series of agreements with her neighbouring countries which provide for annual meetings to decide on management measures and division of quotas on such shared stocks. The most important of these arrangements are with Russia and the European Union.
Under the Agreement with Russia, a joint fisheries commission meets at least once a year to agree on total allowable catches for the major fisheries in the Barents Sea: cod, haddock and capelin. The total quotas set are shared between the two countries, with a fixed additional quantity being traded to third countries in exchange for fish quotas to Norwegian fishermen in their waters. An important aspect of cooperation with Russia is that a substantial part of the Russian harvest in the Barents Sea is landed in Norway. Cooperation entails joint efforts also in fisheries research and in enforcement of fisheries regulations.
The cooperation with the EU on management of North Sea fisheries covers seven shared stocks for which annual total quotas are set. Fisheries management in the European Union is basically a matter for the community rather than the member states. The opposite party in this arrangement is therefore Commission officials rather than the EU member states.
A number of other agreements are in effect too, notably a 5-party agreement among the coastal states in the Northeast Atlantic to manage Norwegian spring spawning herring. Here total quotas for the following year¹s herring fishery are set, and divided among the parties. A separate quota is set for the area on the high seas beyond the EEZ of the member states. The high seas quota, most of which is given to the same coastal states, is formally managed by the Northeast Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) NEAFC, and the terms of a 3-party agreement between Norway, Russia and Iceland basically control fishing on the high seas in the Northeast Atlantic.
Management measures for marine mammals are decided on by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the North Atlantic Marine Mammals Commission (NAMMCO) and the Joint Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission. The IWC has not been able to follow the advice provided by its Scientific Committee and adopt a Revised Management Scheme. Therefore, the Commission does not set quotas. Norway has reserved its position in accordance with international law and is therefore not bound by the IWC non-quota regime. Since 1993 Norway has set unilateral quotas for the take of minke whales from the Northeast Atlantic stock, on the basis of the work of the IWC Scientific Committee. NAMMCO adopts management measures for whales and seals in the northern Northeast Atlantic area.
Norway is also a major player in international fora developing new principles and norms for fisheries management. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation is currently a focal point for international efforts in this realm. In implementing a Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries adopted in 1995, the FAO¹s Committee of Fisheries (COFI) has adopted a series of action plans.
3. The knowledge base for the management of living marine resources
A precondition for sound management of living marine resources is that sufficient knowledge about the resources is available. This implies first of all knowledge of the fish stock in question, its abundance, composition, growth and geographical distribution. In addition knowledge of environmental factors is considered increasingly important.
Abundance of all major commercially exploited marine stocks is estimated annually. The assessments are based on a combination of data from scientific surveys and data from the commercial fisheries. Norwegian data are combined with similar data from collaborating countries. The evaluation of the international database takes place in working groups under the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES). ICES is the international organisation for formulation of scientific advice to the fisheries authorities in the North Atlantic countries. ICES advice is now to a large extent based on the precautionary approach. The advice for a given fish stock normally consists of a number of options for quota levels with specified consequences for the stock in future years for each option.
Detailed information on the amount and composition of the commercial catches is crucial for the quality of the stock assessment. Such data are the backbone of the established history of the stocks, and errors may have serious effects on the quality of the assessment. Catch reports may have substantial errors, and this can seriously affect the reliability of the scientific advice on future development of stock and catches. It is therefore important to the Norwegian fisheries research community as well as to the fishing industry to improve the assessment of fish stocks, inter alia by obtaining more data from scientific surveys and becoming more independent of the commercial data.
Traditionally, the management of fish is conducted on a single-species basis. That is, no account is taken of the influence between species. In the Barents Sea it is known that the species may interact strongly. Capelin is the most important food for cod and cod is the most important predator on capelin. Strong year-classes of Norwegian spring spawning herring will feed in the Barents Sea until they are 3-4 years old when they migrate out and join the adult stock in the Norwegian Sea. During this period the herring has a profound influence on the Barents Sea ecosystem by strongly hampering the growth of the capelin stocks. Collapse of the capelin stocks and reduced individual growth of the cod can be the result.
Since 1985 there has been a co-operation between the Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Bergen, and Knipovich Polar Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (PINRO) in Murmansk to improve the management of the Barents Sea ecosystem by taking species interactions into account. A joint extensive stomach content data base has been built which, supplied with experimental data from the College of Fisheries, University of Tromsø, enables the study of consumption and prey preferences in the Barents Sea. Multispecies research is data demanding. Of special concern is the short series of stomach content data (since 1984) as compared to the data series used for assessment of fish, which date back to 1972.
Sea mammals are important predators on fish in the Barents Sea. The harp seal population is especially important because of its present abundance more than 2 million individuals. The consumption of fish by harp seals may be highly variable from year to year, depending on geographical overlap between the species. There is an increased awareness in the multi-species fisheries research in the Barents Sea of the importance of studying the spatial dimension in species interactions. This which will be a major focus during the next decade.
The impact of physical factors like climate on stocks of marine mammals is a major area of study. A better understanding of how fish stocks respond to changes in their environment is one of the major challenges in fisheries science.
4. Regulating fisheries
A consequence of the fact that most major fish stocks are shared with other countries, is that the key regulatory decisions are taken in the various bi- and multilateral arrangements mentioned above. The Total Allowable Catch is with a few exceptions , such as north arctic saithe and shrimp in the Barents Sea,therefore a given factor that the national regulatory regime has to deal with. The regulations adopted at national level therefore basically (and with a few exceptions) deal with distribution of the quotas set in the international negotiations and with ensuring a rational temporal and geographical pattern of fishing. A number of other concerns are important in formulating and executing the fisheries regulations: the capacity of the fishing fleet should be reduced, the quotas should be fairly distributed among groups of fishermen, etc.
An important feature of the Norwegian fisheries management regime is that fisheries authorities and the fishing industry consult on the formulation of regulations. A Regulatory Council, with representatives from the fisheries authorities and the fishing industry debate the distribution of fish quotas among various groups in the industry and give advice to the Ministry of Fisheries. The Ministry decides on the final management measures.
The management measures essentially fall into three categories:
Input regulations in the form of licensing schemes restricting access to a fishery. Most fisheries in Norway are now under some such limited entry regime.
Output regulations consisting of the fish quotas given to various groups of fishermen as well as on individual vessel level, delimiting the amount of fish they are entitled to in any given season. The quota regime for cod, for example, is very complex and is basically divided with a third to the trawler group and two thirds to vessels fishing with conventional gears.
The third type of regulations are technical measures specifying for example the type of fishing gear that must be used in a particular fishery.
In several fisheries a quota arrangement allowing for combining two or more vessels¹ quotas into one, to be taken by one vessel, has been in operation. A fundamental requirement is however that when two vessels¹ quotas arecombined, one of the vessels must be removed from the fishery. The system gives vessel owners an incentive to remove excess fishing capacity from the fishing fleet and can contribute to a more economically efficient fleet.
5. Enforcing fisheries regulations
In Norway fisheries regulations are enforced both at sea and when the fish is landed. At sea, the Coast Guard is responsible for inspecting fishing vessels and checking their catch against their log books. Also foreign vessels fishing in Norwegian waters are inspected. The activity of the Coast Guard is generally considered vital for the functioning of the management regime as a whole. A recent development is that ocean- going vessels can be required to install and use a satellite monitoring system enabling the authorities to continually monitor their activities.
Also the Fisheries Directorate inspects activities on the fishing grounds. When the fish is landed, the sales organisation buying the fish reports the landed quantity to the Fisheries Directorate which is responsible for maintaining the fisheries statistics. When irregularities are detected, at sea or on landing or through later controls, serious cases are referred to the courts.
6. Challenges in fisheries management
The major challenges to fisheries management today are related to each of the three elements of management. In fisheries science, the major challenges are related to improving current me-thods of estimating the abundance of fish stocks and getting a better grasp of the influence of climate change on living marine resources. The latter in particular is a huge task, and quantifiable results are not likely to be achieved in the near future.
In the realm of fisheries regulations, the key challenge is to set the catch quotas at levels corresponding with the precautionary approach. A basic precondition for doing that is that the science required is established and delivers reliable results that can form the basis for advice. In enforcing fisheries regulations, the major obstacle is to improve compliance with the regulations adopted.
Alf Håkon Hoel is associate professor of political science at the University of Tromsø. His work focuses on international fisheries and environmental politics
UDA247ENG
Produced by Nytt fra Norge for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The author is responsible for the contents of the article. Reproduction permitted. Printed in December 2000
