FFAW: NAFO Moving Forward with Offshore Dragger Access

The North Atlantic Fisheries Organization is making strides towards allowing international and domestic offshore draggers back on the Northern cod grounds as early as this fall. The European Union is awaiting approval of their harvesting proposal from the NAFO Commission to get access to the fishery according to the FFAW.

The 115,000mt commitment is historically referenced dozens of times; as recently as in the 2021 management plan for 2J3KL Groundfish as well as in a 2015 letter from Justin Trudeau, and as early as 1982 with the Kirby Report and then-Fisheries Minister, Romeo Leblanc.

Specifically, the promise was that the first 115,000mt of 2J3KL Northern cod quota would be allocated only to inshore and Indigenous groups, before offshore/corporate groups gained access.