Harvested Resource
Type of production system: Industrial Fishery Area
Climatic zone: Temperate; Polar. Vertical distribution: Pelagic.
Geo References for: Northeast Atlantic
Northeast Atlantic
| FAO Fishing Statistical Sub Areas | 27.1 - Barents Sea (Subarea 27.1) |
| 27.12 - North of Azores (Subarea 27.12) |
| 27.14 - East Greenland (Subarea 27.14) |
| 27.2 - Norwegian Sea, Spitzbergen, and Bear Island (Subarea 27.2) |
| 27.3 - Skagerrak, Kattegat, Sound, Belt Sea, and Baltic Sea (Subarea 27.3) |
| 27.4 - North Sea (Subarea 27.4) |
| 27.5 - Iceland and Faroes Grounds (Subarea 27.5) |
| 27.6 - Rockall, Northwest Coast of Scotland and North Ireland (Subarea 27.6) |
| 27.7 - Irish Sea, West of Ireland, Porcupine Bank, Eastern and Western English Channel, etc (Subarea 27.7) |
| 27.8 - Bay of Biscay (Subarea 27.8) |
| 27.9 - Portuguese Waters (Subarea 27.9) |
More Geo References
The following area codes have been found as intersecting the location of
Northeast Atlantic Blue whiting fisheries| FAO Major Fishing Areas | 27 - Atlantic, Northeast |
| Large Marine Ecosystem Areas (LME) | 19 - East Greenland Shelf |
| 20 - Barents Sea |
| 21 - Norwegian Shelf |
| 22 - North Sea |
| 23 - Baltic Sea |
| 24 - Celtic-Biscay Shelf |
| 25 - Iberian Coastal |
| 58 - Kara Sea |
| 59 - East Greenland Shelf/Sea |
| 60 - Faroe Plateau |
| 64 - Arctic Ocean |
| 65 - Arctic Archipelago |
Fleet segment
Flag State
Faroe Islands
Greenland
European Union
Iceland
Norway
Russian Federation
United Kingdom
The main pelagic stocks in the NEAFC Regulatory Area are exploited by large trawlers-purse seiners from all the Contracting Parties of NEAFC. The fleets move with the season between the three main stocks and the waters under national jurisdiction and the Regulatory Area.
Seasonality
All year round.
Ecosystem Assessment
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF FISHERIES
The fisheries are not conducted by vessel using bottom contacting gear.
There are not significant levels of bycatches in the fisheries.
NEAFC’s request to ICES for scientific advice reads in part as follows:
“The recurring advice shall include information on the state of marine ecosystems and human impacts including historical developments in main parameters and information on the present state and recent development of stocks. The recurrent advice shall provide information on state of stocks and fisheries including - when available - historical developments in spawning stock biomass, total stock biomass, fishing mortality as well as landings and discards in the NEAFC regulatory area and within EEZs.”
“When providing its advice regarding fisheries ICES shall take account of all available information and the context of fisheries management including information from the fishing industry, ecosystem considerations, environment and hydrographical conditions, regulations in force that affect fisheries, factors affecting fishing operations and information about the fisheries, development of fisheries technology and relevant performance changes and other relevant factors that affect fishing or fish stocks.”
“If no management plan/strategy has been agreed by all relevant management parties or the agreed plan/strategy has been evaluated by ICES not to be consistent with the precautionary approach, ICES will provide advice applying the ICES MSY advice rule if possible or the precautionary approach if the information on the stocks is insufficient to support the MSY rule.”
“The advice shall be based on an ecosystem approach. This will be implemented incrementally so that any information on the interactions between fisheries, the fish stocks and the marine ecosystem is considered and incorporated in the advice as it becomes available; specifically, taking ecosystem and environmental considerations into account when providing the recurring advice mentioned above, ICES will:
- Assess the extent to which fishing disturbs the marine ecosystems and, where reference levels have been established, compare the impact to the reference level chosen.
- Provide any new information regarding the impact of fisheries on other components of the ecosystem including small cetaceans and other marine mammals, sea birds and sensitive habitats.
- Inform NEAFC of any notable impact of other factors on and imbalances in ecosystem structure that may prejudice the stocks of commercially valuable species and its long term exploitation.
- Propose reference points as guidance for management purposes in an ecosystem context.
ICES will in addition give warnings of any serious threats from fishing activities alone or in conjunction with any other relevant activity to local ecosystems or species as soon as ICES is aware of such threats.”
The full request for advice is available on the NEAFC website (
https://www.neafc.org/system/files/AM_2020-94_Request-to-ICES-for-advice-2021%28PECMAS_2020-02-10-Rev1%29.pdf) (publicly available from February 2021).
Management
Management unit: Yes
Jurisdictional framework
The fishery is regulated under NEAFC jurisdictional framework / management regime as reported in the Northeast Atlantic - NEAFC high seas fisheries.
Area of Competence: NEAFC Convention Area
Mandate: Management; Monitoring; Control and surveillance.
 |
NEAFC Convention Area. Courtesy of NEAFC  |
Fisheries for blue whiting in 2021 are managed through legally binding conservation and management measures adopted by NEAFC, Recommendation 2/2021 (
https://www.neafc.org/system/files/Recommendation-02-blue-whiting-2021.pdf). These measures are based on an agreement among the coastal States, which applies to areas under national jurisdiction.
The management is based on total allowable catches set as 929,292 tonnes for 2021. This is in accordance with the scientific advice from ICES, which can be found on the ICES website: (
http://ices.dk/sites/pub/Publication%20Reports/Advice/2020/2020/whb.27.1-91214.pdf).
In 2016 ICES also provided advice on a long-term management strategy for the fisheries on the blue whiting, which had been formulated by the coastal States. The ICES advice was that it was the strategy “is precautionary given the ICES estimates of Blim (1.5 million t), Bpa (2.25 million t), and FMSY (0.32).” (
http://www.ices.dk/sites/pub/Publication Reports/Advice/2016/Special_Requests/NEAFC_Blue_whiting_LTM_strategy_evaluation.pdf).
NEAFC’s Permanent Committee on Monitoring and Compliance reports annually to the NEAFC Commission on compliance by the Contracting Parties with Recommendations adopted by NEAFC. The latest such compliance report, relating to the year 2019, is accessible on the NEAFC website (
https://www.neafc.org/compliance).
History
All previous conservation and management measures can be found on the NEAFC website (
https://www.neafc.org/managing_fisheries/measures/historic).
Status of Management
Assessment Summary
Scientific advice is provided by ICES. NEAFC is not involved in any scientific work. The NEAFC Contracting Parties have stressed that they consider it important to maintain a “clear separation between the scientific role of ICES and the policy and management role of NEAFC” (see report of the 2015 Extraordinary Meeting of NEAFC
http://www.neafc.org/system/files/EM-2015-Report-final.pdf). This NEAFC fact sheet will therefore not comment on scientific work or scientific assessments. The ICES advice on which the 2019 NEAFC conservation and management measures will be based can be found on the ICES website (
http://ices.dk/sites/pub/Publication%20Reports/Advice/2020/2020/whb.27.1-91214.pdf).
Resources Assessed
Assessment advice provided by ICES: Blue whiting - Northeast Atlantic
Negotiation Process
Consultations on conservation and management are held by the relevant coastal States for areas under national jurisdiction and by NEAFC for the high seas. Conservation and management measures adopted by NEAFC take account of any coastal State agreement.
Management Resolutions
Fisheries for blue whiting in 2021 are managed through legally binding conservation and management measures adopted by NEAFC, Recommendation 2/2021 (
https://www.neafc.org/system/files/Recommendation-02-blue-whiting-2021.pdf). These measures are based on an agreement among the coastal States, which applies to areas under national jurisdiction.
The management is based on setting total allowable catches as 929,292 tonnes for 2021. This is in accordance with the scientific advice from ICES, which can be found on the ICES website (
http://ices.dk/sites/pub/Publication%20Reports/Advice/2020/2020/whb.27.1-91214.pdf).
Management Problems
In recent years, there have been difficulties in reaching an agreement on allocation among the coastal States, and thereby on allocation among the NEAFC Contracting Parties. This has resulted in conservation and management measures not being comprehensive. There has been agreement on the level of total allowable catches but not on the sharing arrangements for allocating the catches among the parties.
Management Regime
Management Methods
CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT MEASURES - Binding
This fishery is regulated by TACs and allocations, although there have been difficulties in reaching an agreement on the latter in recent years.
COMPLIANCE MEASURES - Binding
The fishery is monitored and controlled according to the NEAFC Scheme of Control and Enforcement (https://www.neafc.org/scheme/contents). This includes inter alia a vessel monitoring system, regular catch reporting, inspections at sea and port state control.
Source of Information
Information provided by the NEAFC Secretariat.
Sources referred to in this fact sheet are (in the order they are referred to):report of the 2015 Extraordinary Meeting of NEAFC.
http://www.neafc.org/system/files/EM-2015-Report-final.pdfICES advice on which the 2021 NEAFC conservation and management measures are based.
http://ices.dk/sites/pub/Publication%20Reports/Advice/2020/2020/whb.27.1-91214.pdfRecommendation 2/2021 on Conservation and Management Measures for Blue Whiting in the NEAFC Regulatory Area for 2021.
https://www.neafc.org/system/files/Recommendation-02-blue-whiting-2021.pdfNEAFC’s annual compliance report for 2019.
https://www.neafc.org/complianceHistoric conservation and management measures adopted by NEAFC.
https://www.neafc.org/managing_fisheries/measures/historicThe NEAFC Scheme of Control and Enforcement.
https://www.neafc.org/scheme/contents
to turn layers on and off 
Micromesistius poutassou 