New Agreement Reached on Salmon Fishing in Faroese Waters

At its 2024 Annual Meeting, the NEA agreed not to set a quota for the salmon fishery in Faroese Waters for the 2024 / 2025 fishing season following a commitment from Denmark (in respect of the Faroe Islands and Greenland) to manage any salmon fishery on the basis of the advice from ICES. The Decision will also apply to the 2025 / 26 salmon fishery unless a Commission member requests its reconsideration based on the 2025 ICES advice.

Given that the advice from ICES for the 2024 / 25 – 2026 / 27 fishing seasons is that the catch at the Faroe Islands should be 0 (source: CNL(24)06), this effectively means that there will be no salmon fishing at the Faroe Islands during the 2024 / 25 or 2025 / 26 fishing seasons.

In reaching this Decision, the NEA acknowledged the restraint shown by the Faroe Islands by not having commercial salmon fisheries for a number of years. Indeed, there has been no fishery for salmon at the Faroes since the year 2000 and the Commission has previously acknowledged the conservation measures taken by Denmark (in respect of the Faroe Islands and Greenland) to better protect Atlantic salmon stocks.