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The deal secures quotas for North Sea whitefish stocks worth around £3m and Arctic stocks worth around £2m for 2023, and also ensures UK vessels have access to Norwegian waters to fish their own demersal and pelagic quotas.
The UK and Norway hold annual negotiations on access to each other’s water, quota exchanges and control and enforcement measures.
Mutual access
The deal extends an arrangement agreed last year on mutual access, in which the UK fishing industry has access to 30,000 tonnes of whitefish stocks such as cod, haddock and hake in the North Sea.
The deal also gives fish access to up to 20,000 tonnes of herring in each of the relevant waters, secures a quota transfer from Norway of over 1,100 tonnes of the UK’s main stock and provides the UK with a 750 tonne cod quota to fish in Norwegian Arctic waters.
Fisheries Minister Mark Spencer said:I am delighted to have reached a deal with Norway for 2023 which gives UK fishing vessels access to key fish stocks and quotas in the North Sea and Arctic, and look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with Norway and other coastal states to manage fisheries sustainably. “No
Fishing opportunities
The agreement sits alongside a separate arrangement the UK has with Norway under which it expects to transfer 5,200 tonnes of additional Arctic opportunities to the UK by 2023. In total, this will provide the UK fleet with over 6,000 tonnes of fishing opportunities in the Arctic. water, said DEFRA.
The UK Government said that throughout the negotiations it worked closely with the devolved administration to ensure that all fishing communities across the UK benefit from the agreement.
Tripartite negotiations between the UK, Norway and the EU are still ongoing. In these annual negotiations, the UK agrees catch limits for the coming year for six fish stocks jointly managed in the North Sea with Norway and the EU.
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