Saving Seafood

Coastal states agree to stick to ICES advice on blue whiting, herring but have yet to reach quota distribution agreement

October 15, 2026 — Northeast Atlantic coastal nations have once again agreed to abide by International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) scientific advice on the blue whiting and Atlanto-Scandian herring quotas but have yet to reach a quota-sharing agreement.

ICES released its advice on multiple Northeast Atlantic pelagic species in early October, bumping up the blue whiting advice for 2027 to 1,064,191 metric tons (MT), up from the 851,344 MT it advised in 2026; herring was increased to 588,004 MT, up 10 percent over its advice for the prior year. Coastal states including Norway, the E.U., the U.K., the Faroe Islands, and Iceland then met in London and agreed that those numbers should be the unilateral quota for 2027.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

COVID second wave impacts Bakkafrost’s year-end earnings

February 23, 2021 — Faroe Islands-headquartered Bakkafrost Group saw decreased earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) in the fourth quarter, due in large part to the depressed global market for salmon.

Bakkafrost Group delivered total operational earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of DKK 88.5 million (USD 14.5 million, EUR 11.9 million) in the fourth quarter of 2020, down from DKK 415.3 million (USD 67.9 million, EUR 55.8 million) in the corresponding period of 2019, with large volumes and reduced demand contributing to the downturn.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fishing ban in international Arctic waters remains elusive

December 5th, 2016 — More than a year ago, five Arctic nations signed a declaration pledging to keep their fishing fleets out of the international waters in the Arctic Ocean, an area increasingly ripe for exploitation as summer sea ice diminishes — and perhaps increasingly vulnerable with so little known about its ecology.

Now a group of diplomats is still trying to hammer out a binding agreement to protect waters of the central Arctic Ocean. The effort has expanded to nine nations and the European Union.

A meeting last week in the Faroe Islands, about halfway between Iceland and Norway, failed to produce the deal that some had expected to be in place by now, well before any commercial fishing vessels head north into international Arctic waters. Another session will be held early next year, probably in Iceland.

All parties are sticking by the goal of protecting the Arctic Ocean, said the U.S. State Department official who is managing the negotiations.

“All delegations reaffirmed their commitment to prevent unregulated commercial high-seas fishing in the central Arctic Ocean as well as a commitment to promote the conservation and sustainable use of living marine resources and to safeguard healthy marine ecosystems in the central Arctic Ocean,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Balton said in a “chairman’s statement” that was released at the end of the session.

There was “good progress in resolving differences of view on a number of the main issues under discussion,” Balton’s diplomatic statement said, and there is reason to believe that a binding agreement will be produced soon. “There was a general belief that these discussions have the possibility of concluding successfully in the near future,” his statement said.

Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch News