WGC(99)8

Multi-Year Regulatory Measure for the Fishing of Salmon at West Greenland

Having regard to the advice from ICES that:

- stocks originating in the southern component of the North-East Atlantic are considered to be outside safe biological limits, and that extreme caution should be exercised in the management of mixed stock fisheries exploiting these stocks.

- stocks originating in North America are outside safe biological limits. Fishing mortality of multi-sea-winter fish should be minimised, except for in-river harvests from those stocks which are above biologically-based escapement requirements.

Taking into account these very serious circumstances, a multi-year approach has been agreed and therefore for 1999 and 2000 the catch at West Greenland in each of these years will be restricted to that amount used for internal consumption in Greenland, which in the past has been estimated at 20 tonnes. There will be no commercial export of salmon.

The Parties note, and commend Greenland for, the continued improvement in its monitoring and reporting procedures, in order to respect the aforementioned amount.