The Parties having considered a proposal (WGC(97)3) arising from Informal Sessions of the Commission held in January and April 1997 agree to an Addend um to the 1993 Agreement (WGC(93)9) which expires at the end of 1997, as in Annex 1.

Other Issues

The Commission recommends the following:

(1) that ICES be requested to examine critically the model used to provide catch advice to the West Greenland Commission, looking at all the assumptions, and to comment on the confidence limits on the output from the model;

(2) that in the Council and the Commissions of NASCO strenuous efforts be made by all the Parties to account for all elements of the salmon catches for inclusion in quota monitoring.

Future Agreements

With regard to future agreements concerning the West Greenland fishery the Commission identifies the following issues as requiring further consideration:

(1) alternatives to a Reserve Quota such as a minimum fishing season, or other forms of effort limitation;

(2) in order to achieve some stability in the quotas, a system under which, if the Calculated Quota in any year changes by more than X% from the previous year’s Calculated Quota, the change shall be limited to X% plus one half of the excess over X%;

(3) the 1993 Agreement together with the Addendum referred to above should serve as the basis for an agreement from 1998 onwards subject to a number of provisions including inter alia the evaluation referred to in paragraph 3 of the addendum and the possible linkage to commitments made by States of Origin to the conservation of salmon stocks.

In order to develop a future agreement to start in 1998 the Commission agrees to meet if necessary and as appropriate at a date prior to the 1998 Annual Meeting.

Annex 1

1. Definitions

The “Pre-Fishery Abundance” (PFA) is the forecast number of potential 2SW salmon of North American origin according to the latest scientific advice provided by ICES through the ACFM peer review process.

The “Reserve Quota” is based on an allocation to Greenland, for the 1997 fishery year, of 6% of the forecast PFA using the biological parameters provided by ICES in 1996.

The “Calculated Quota” means the quota calculated according to the 1993 Agreement (NASCO document WGC(93)9) using the PFA forecast at a 50% probability level. “Subsistence fishery” means a fishery which harvests salmon only for community food, social or ceremonial purposes.

2. Establishment of the quota

2.1 The quota allocated to West Greenland will be the higher of the Calculated Quota and the Reserve Quota.

2.2 If the PFA is sufficiently low, the Reserve Quota shall come into force and it shall include all catches inclusive of the subsistence catch, home sales, and all other sources of heretofore unreported catch.

Note: The unreported or subsistence catch was estimated in 1996 to be 20 tonnes.

2.3 If the PFA falls below 100,000 there shall be no harvest of North American origin multi-sea-winter (MSW) fish except:

(a) in subsistence fisheries;

(b) in individual North American river fisheries for MSW salmon where the target spawning escapement of MSW fish is exceeded in that river.

2.4 The Reserve Quota is related to the PFA as follows:

2.5 In recognition of Article 9(g) of the Convention, the rationale for this quota arrangement is that it:

(a) facilitates the continued collection of biological information on the stocks at low stock levels;

(b) provides greater equitability for West Greenland until such time as quota measures on stocks occurring in the West Greenland Commission area are coordinated;

(c) offers greater predictability to the commercial fishery at West Greenland.

3. Evaluation of impacts

It is agreed that to ensure that the quota arrangement outlined in paragraph 2 above does not undermine the conservation of salmon stocks, the NASCO Standing Scientific Committee be asked to prepare Terms of Reference for ICES for scientific advice on the evaluation of the impact of the Reserve Quota levels on the salmon stocks.

4. European origin salmon

In the event that the biological parameters for European origin salmon become available, the quota setting arrangements are subject to review and revision.

5. Changes to the model used to provide catch advice

Where there are any changes made to the model used to provide catch advice, ICES shall be asked to provide a more detailed explanation of the changes and to provide information on the impact of the changes to the model used to provide catch advice on the Calculated Quota.

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