Canada disappointed by Greenland’s stance on salmon

NASCO had hoped to convince Denmark to reduce commercial catches

“The Greenland fishery catches fish that come from all the other countries that are part of NASCO. And nearly 75 per cent of the salmon taken from the West Greenland area come from Canada.” Doug Bliss Executive Director, Atlantic Science Enterprise Centre

If they were humans they would rack up massive travel points.

Atlantic salmon travel thousands of kilometres as they leave the rivers of Atlantic Canada as smolt to head out on a five-year ocean journey before returning to the places of their birth.

They travel from the Miramachi in New Brunswick the Conne River in Newfoundland, heading to the Labrador Sea and Greenland.

Because they cross international boundaries on their ocean travels, rules and regulations to manage and protect them depend on international co-operation through the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO).

Since 1982, Canada and other member countries have worked through NASCO to govern salmon fishing, both angling and commercial fishing.

Salmon from European rivers also follow a migratory pattern that also takes them to Greenland, one of the few places in the Atlantic where a commercial salmon fishery is still allowed.

Three years ago, NASCO agreed to allow West Greenland a total salmon catch of 30 metric tonnes. The regulation also provided for penalties for Greenland if catches exceeded that amount.

That regulation measure expired this year.

At last week’s NASCO meeting, Canada and other members asked that West Greenland salmon catches be reduced to 20 metric tonnes.

Greenland representatives said no.

Doug Bliss, Doug Bliss, Executive Director, Atlantic Science Enterprise Centre in New Brunswick, calls the outcome disappointing.

The impact of the Greenland salmon fishery is significant for Canadian and EU salmon stocks, he said, because these fish from both sides of the Atlantic make massive migrations to the ocean to mature and most of them end up somewhere around the Greenland area.

“The Greenland fishery catches fish that come from all the other countries that are part of NASCO,” said Bliss, “And nearly 75 per cent of the salmon taken from the West Greenland area come from Canada.”

He added, “If you look at any kind of report, whether from Canada or Europe or the NASCO reports, the trend for Atlantic salmon is the same. We had healthy populations in the 1970s and massive declines in the 1980s, and currently very low numbers everywhere.”

The International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) provides scientific advice for NASCO, Bliss said, noting the ICES advice this year was that any salmon fishing in the West Greenland region was not sustainable.

“However, it is recognized that Greenland, like Labrador, has remote northern … Indigenous communities where people fish for food.

“Canada’s position … was to say, you have to start working your quota down.”

Bliss said both Canada and the United States proposed the Greenland quota should be dropped to 20 tonnes.

In its official closing statement to the NASCO and the West Greenland Commission, Canada said, “In response to scientific advice, Canada has taken significant steps over many years to strengthen management of our own fisheries, including the ongoing closure of all commercial fisheries since 2000, a move to no retention in many recreational fisheries, and limits on the amount of fish that may be taken in subsistence fisheries.

“These steps have been difficult for Canadians to accept given the importance of access to salmon, but they have been taken nevertheless in the face of long-standing and worsening concerns about salmon stocks.”

NASCO eventually reached a compromise deal, Bliss explained, agreeing to allow Greenland to fish 30 tonnes of salmon for one more year and with no penalties for overfishing.

“Canada and the U.S. opted not to support that regulatory measure,” Bliss said, “but we would not block consensus among the other members.”

The hope is NASCO can eventually reach a consensus deal with Greenland over the coming year.

Bliss said Canada “will continue to try to convince (Greenland) that it is important to listen to science.

“When science is saying this particular fishery is not sustainable … we have an obligation to do something about it.”

SALMON GROUPS CONCERNED

The Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) and the North Atlantic Salmon Fund (NASF) has observer status at the NASCO meetings.

The ASF says Greenland’s decision to keep fishing at past levels is putting Atlantic salmon at risk.

In a press release this week ASF president Bill Taylor said, “The Greenland Atlantic salmon fishery is small and well managed compared to the past, however it is still having an outsized negative effect on populations in home-water countries around the North Atlantic.”

Taylor said because Atlantic salmon from more than 2,000 rivers in North America and Europe migrate to ocean feeding grounds off Greenland, participants in the fishery there capture individuals from relatively healthy populations alongside critically endangered ones.

In addition, only fish that spend multiple winters at sea travel to Greenland. These large fish are predominantly female and carry significantly more eggs than smaller adults.

Elvar Fridriksson of NASF, based in Iceland, also stated in a press release, “The large salmon that are critical spawners are far less abundant than they used to be in Europe and U.K., and therefore it is important to protect them. Despite major improvements in the Greenland Atlantic salmon fishery in the last few years, we are worried that the new interim regulatory measure will not do enough to protect these fragile stocks.”

Both the ASF and NASF say they recognize the right of Greenlanders to fish salmon in their territorial waters.

However, they say, current harvest levels must be balanced with the responsibility we all have to protect nature and the environment.

ASF and NASF were aligned with the U.S. and Canadian NASCO delegations calling for a 20-tonne total allowable harvest, in line with our current Greenland Salmon Conservation Agreement.

“ASF urges the member countries of NASCO to keep working with the Greenland government for a lower total allowable harvest, which includes reductions to account for recent overharvests, and to do more to conserve wild salmon in their home countries,” said ASF’S Taylor.

Since there is no commercial salmon fishery, and therefore no landed value or export value, the economic value of salmon to Atlantic Canada is hard to quantify.

Bliss said salmon angling does bring money to the region.

“There’s still a huge involvement with tourism in particular with people, nonresidents, coming in to the five Atlantic Canadian provinces to spend their money

It’s culturally important to First Nations, he added.

And there’s a very strong emotional attachment to the fish in all of Atlantic Canada, said Bliss.

“It’s a fish that captures people’s imagination. It’s just one of those iconic species.”

For more on this story, including links to the NASCO reports, visit: www.saltwire. com