Cod is back on the Grand Banks

Good news!!! Cod fishery on the Gand Banks will be back from 1.April next year. (No it is NOT an April Fools prank):

The cod back on the Grand Bank

Just over 30 years ago, Canada’s east coast was hit by a cod crisis which makes the Norwegian crisis seem like a breather. But now the cod is back. On 1 April, an area that has been closed since 1992 will be opened again.

This is also good news for the Norwegian factory trawler fleet, since this means that get more quota on the other side of the Atlantic to replace the falling quota in the Barents Sea:


Norwegian trawlers can fish 1,187 tonnes of cod off the east coast of Canada next year. Photo: Norwegian Seafood Council


Area 3L closest to Newfoundland is being opened to fishing again, 33 years after it was closed, while 3M further out to sea has been open for careful fishing since 2012.

In the open sea the cod is back at full speed. And there Norway has a quota, managed by the regional fisheries management organization NAFO (Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization). In the regulatory area that bears the name 3M, the total quota has gone up and down since 2012, it was 1,500 tonnes in 2021, but has since risen sharply to 11,708 tonnes this year and 12,613 tonnes next year. With 9.25 per cent of the quota, Norwegian vessels thus have 1166.7 tonnes of fish to catch here.

The Norwegian quotas at Newfoundland will next year be fished by the trawlers, while in 2026 it will be the turn of the autoliners. This year, three Norwegian vessels were allocated the quotas, using a rolling scheme administered by Fiskebåt. Adm. Mr. Audun Maråk in Fiskebåt informs Kyst og Fjord that it will probably be one of the Nergård trawlers that will get the chance next year:


The Nergård trawler “Senja” may be due to travel across the Atlantic next year, to take the Norwegian quota on the Grand Banks.

Possibly also the trawler “Havbryn”:

Source: https://www.smp.no/nyheter/i/4BrGbE/torsken-tilbake-paa-grand-banks