Fishing for Salmon at West Greenland for 1998

Having regard to the advice from ICES which states that:

- the pre-fishery abundance of non-maturing multi-sea-winter salmon in Southern Europe has been declining steadily for about ten years. Present analyses suggest that the pre-fishery abundance reached a historic minimum in 1996, and with the current trend will fall below that preliminary conservation limit in 1998;

- for stocks originating in North America estimates of pre-fishery abundance of nonmaturing one-sea-winter salmon provided a value for 1996 that is the lowest on record.

For 1998 only, the catch at West Greenland will be restricted to that amount used for internal consumption in Greenland, which in the past has been estimated at 20 tonnes.

The Parties note, and commend Greenland for, the improvement in its monitoring and reporting procedures and encourage further improvements.