The deal secures quota of North Sea whitefish stocks worth nearly £3m and in arctic stocks worth nearly £2m for 2023, and also ensures UK vessels have access to Norwegian waters to fish their own demersal and pelagic quota.
The UK and Norway negotiate annually on access to each other’s waters, quota exchanges and control and enforcement measures.
Mutual Access
This deal extends arrangements agreed last year on mutual access, with the UK fishing industry having access to 30,000 tonnes of whitefish stocks such as cod, haddock and hake in the North Sea.
The deal also grants access to fish up to 20,000 tonnes each of herring in each respective waters, secures over 1,100 tonnes of quota transfers from Norway of key UK stocks and provides 750 tonnes of cod quota for the UK to fish in Norway’s arctic waters.
Fisheries Minister Mark Spencer said: “I’m delighted to reach a deal with Norway for 2023 which gives UK fishing vessels access to key fish stocks and quota in the North Sea and Arctic, and look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with Norway and other coastal States to manage fishing sustainably."
Fishing opportunities
The agreement sits alongside a separate arrangement the UK has with Norway under which it expects over 5,200 tonnes of additional arctic opportunities to be transferred to the UK in 2023. In total, this should provide the UK fleet with over 6,000 tonnes of fishing opportunities in arctic waters, DEFRA said.
The UK Government said that throughout the negotiations it worked closely with the devolved administrations to ensure that all fishing communities across the UK will benefit from the agreement.
Trilateral negotiations between the UK, Norway and the EU are still ongoing. In these annual negotiations, the UK agrees catch limits for the following year for six jointly managed fish stocks in the North Sea with Norway and the EU.
