Resolution Regarding the Fishing of Salmon at West Greenland

RECALLING that the Parties to the West Greenland Commission have previously worked cooperatively to utilize scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in establishing regulatory measures for the fishing of salmon at West Greenland as contained in WGC(93)9, WGC(97)10 and WGC(99)3 which, in some years, include a provision for a reserve quota;

NOTING that ICES has provided a forecast of pre- fishery abundance of North American non-maturing 1SW salmon at West Greenland for 2000 of 179,897 fish;

RECOGNIZING that ICES advises that there is a 50% probability that the pre-fishery abundance will be lower than this estimate;

CONSIDERING that ICES has established conservation limits for all North American stocks occurring in the West Greenland Commission area and that these summed conservation limits, expressed as pre- fishery fish in Greenland waters, is 170,286;

FURTHER RECOGNIZING that, considering the status of the stocks at West Greenland, ICES advises a risk-averse approach to managing both the North American and West Greenland salmon fisheries;

FURTHER CONSIDERING that ICES has advised that the North American stock complex at West Greenland is outside safe biological limits and has advised that there should be no exploitation of the 1999 cohort as non-maturing 1SW fish in North America or at Greenland in 2000, and also recommends that the cohort should not be exploited as mature 2SW fish in North America in 2001;

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT NASCO’s commitment to implementation of the Precautionary Approach;

THE PARTIES:

- resolve to maintain the spirit embodied in previous agreements within the West Greenland Commission and agree that unless a significant improvement is demonstrated in the condition of stocks available to the West Greenland fishery, the catch at West Greenland in 2001 will be restricted to the lowest possible level.

- note, and compliment Denmark (in respect of Greenland) for the continued improvement in monitoring and reporting procedures as described in WGC(00)7 and agree to cooperate to provide a comprehensive sampling of the West Greenland fishery.