Norway and Russia Cooperate to Save Cod Fishing

America's Atlantic cod fisheries have been fished out. The Atlantic cod is a poster child for overfishing and regulatory failure. Cod populations on Georges Bank and other traditional North American cod fishing grounds are near record lows. The cod fishing industry of the Canadian maritime provinces has long since collapsed. In 1992 Canada's Northern Cod fishery was officially closed. The same species lives on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean with the same human demand for consumption, but the outlook for the survival of the codfish is much more positive in Barents Sea fisheries protected by Norway and Russia. These two nations have agreed on a cooperative and far-sighted management strategy for this favorite food fish. The agreement works. There one fishery yields a sustainable annual catch of one million tons while others are in serious decline or failing.

Ever since the late 1400's Europeans sailed across the ocean to reach North American waters to replace their own dwindling cod catches. John Cabot (1497) reported that the fish were so numerous they could be caught with baskets. No more. What was a reliable fishery of about 250,000 tons a year until the 1950s is now down to nothing. The human population of Newfoundland fell by 10% when the fishery closed. It was a $500 million industry and many of the fisherman had no other skills with which to earn a livelihood. The fisherman who stayed behind in hopes the cod fish would recover under severe restrictions are still waiting. Apparently the cod fish ecological niche has been totally replaced by other less edible organisms.

dried cod heads are food in Nigeria

In contrast the migratory stock of Barents Sea cod is still yielding almost three billion cod fish meals per year. This remarkable preservation of a valuable fish resource on a fished out planet is credited to early scientific investigation of their fisheries and cooperation through the formation of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea in 1902. Interrupted by two world wars, regular scientific exchanges between Norway and Russia began in the 1950s. The joint Barents Sea Ecosystem Survey began in 1965, which led to the Joint Fisheries Commission. It sets harvest control rules based on regular scientific stock assessments. Norway and Russia share 80% of the cod catch with the remainder allotted to other nation's with historic fishing rights in the area.

Canada and the United States also share a quota on Georges Bank, but that system is not working. Cod on Georges Bank are in step decline as are their numbers in the Gulf of Maine. Canada's desperate fishermen pressured their government to permit catches in excess of what the nation's scientists recommended. Now the United States is shelling out $32 billion in disaster relief to assist New England fishermen. At Norway Seafoods, a fisherman is caught tossing a single unwanted fish species overboard--bycatch is counted agains the annual quotas--he is terminated.  All parts of the fish are used and very little is wasted: heads go to Nigeria, tongues to Oslo, and waste parts go to mink farms. The North American fishing industry can learn a thing or two from the Russians and Norwegians about international cooperation.