The matter in summary: – The trawlers may lose almost 10,000 tonnes of cod to the coastal fleet in the proposal for a new quota notification. – This is a transfer of values from Western Norway to Northern Norway, according to Janne Grethe Strand Aasnæs, shipowner and general manager of Strand rederi in Ålesund. – The trawler fleet and ocean-going vessels will lose quotas worth over NOK 400 million to the coastal fishing fleet, if the proposals in the Quota Report go through. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. – This is a pure transfer of values, to a large extent from us in the West to Northern Norway, said shipowner, Janne Grethe Strand Aasnæs, to news on Friday last week. She is general manager at Strand rederi in Ålesund. A shipping company with both cod trawlers and purse seiners. On the same day, 950 kilometers further north of Ålesund, in Tromsø, Fisheries and Oceans Minister Cecilie Myrseth (Ap) presented the long-awaited Quota Notification. There, the minister announced a major redistribution of the cod quotas, from the larger fishing boats to the small ones: – The fish belong to the people and the nation as a whole. We must manage the resources in a way that is sustainable for the future, Myrseth said during the presentation. Strand Aasnæs based its statements on an estimate from the sea fishing fleet’s interest organization Fiskebåt. news has carried out new calculations, which have been quality-assured by Nofima, and has arrived at similar figures to the organization Fiskebåt: The trawler fleet, and parts of the large ocean-going vessels, lose cod quotas worth over NOK 400 million to the coastal fishing fleet, regarding the proposals in the Quota Notification going through. The trawlers must also set aside cod quotas for sharks. A major change in the new Quota Notification is that the trawlers must cede cod quotas to the sharks in the so-called “open group”. This is a group of vessels consisting of 2,150 sharks that do not have their own set aside vessel quotas, but instead fish on a common quota. Just over half of these sharks are located in Troms and Finnmark. In the past, only the coastal fleet has given up cod quotas from its own quota base to this fishing fleet. Now the government believes that the trawlers and sea fishing fleets must also renounce their cod quotas. This means that the trawlers must cover around a third of this quota allocation, which for the trawl and sea fishing fleet corresponds to around 3,800 tonnes, based on the cod quotas for 2024. For the trawlers, and parts of the conventional ocean-going fishing fleet, this measure alone will involve a loss of value of around NOK 150 million, news and Nofima’s calculations show. These changes in the Quota Report have been calculated: In the Quota Report, news has calculated the effects of the following changes in the cod quotas – Nofima has contributed with quality assurance of the figures: The government proposes to increase the quota basis for sharks in a closed group, under 11 meters, by redistributing 2 percent of coastal and the sea fishing vessels’ joint quota called: conventional group quota. They are reintroducing dynamic Trålestigen, which gives the coastal fleet increased cod quotas this year with lower total fishing quotas. The government proposes that the provision for sharks in the open group should be taken from the total quota. In place of the coastal and sea fishing fleet. This means that trawlers’ cod quotas are additionally charged. Nofima has calculated the trawler ladder at 29.28 per cent of the total quota after allocations (called disposable quota), where the open group sharks are included in the allocations. Today, the trawlers have 32 percent of the available quota. Introduces new distribution between sea and coast In 2020, the Solberg government established a fixed distribution of the cod quota to trawlers of 32 percent. This has led to coastal and sea fishing vessels losing large amounts of cod to the trawl fleet. This is the trawl ladder: In 2020, it was decided to introduce a fixed distribution of the total quotas (after allocation to various special schemes) of 32 per cent to trawls and 68 per cent to conventional gear (coastal and sea fishing vessels). By reintroducing the so-called dynamic trawl ladder, a dynamic distribution mechanism for cod quotas is introduced between the sea and coastal fleet (also called conventional fishing vessels), depending on the size of the total Norwegian cod quota. If the total quota increases, the quota share of the trawl group increases from 27 per cent, when the total quota for cod is low (130,000 tonnes or less), to a maximum of 33 per cent when it is high (over 330,000 tonnes). With a cod quota in 2024 of 212,000 tonnes, and a provision for special arrangements and for the sharks in the open group, Nofima calculates the distribution to the trawlers to be around 29.28 per cent. Since the cod quotas have been relatively low in recent years, the trawlers, through their fixed distribution, have been transferred approx. 2–4,000 tonnes more cod per year than the traditional arrangement. A calculation from Nofima shows that the fixed distribution between trawls and conventional fishing vessels has given the trawl fleet about 7,000 tonnes more cod in the last two years, more than they would have received with traditional distribution. In the Quota Notification, the government proposes to change this back for both cod and herring quotas. With the new distribution between the sea and coastal fleet, this means a loss of over NOK 250 million in lost cod quotas, news and Nofima’s calculation shows. Torgeir Knag Fylkesnes (SV) watched closely during the presentation of the Quota Report on Friday. Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / news SV: – Fair and reasonable Fisheries policy spokesperson for SV, Torgeir Knag Fylkesnes, says the party will support the changes that the government has proposed. – It is right and reasonable that the trawl fleet gets fewer fishing quotas in years with little fish, and more when there are a lot of quotas to distribute. This is because the ocean-going fishing fleet can “row on many seas”, while the smallest fleet is dependent on coastal fishing, Fylkesnes points out. At the same time, he believes it would have been best if only the former duty trawlers, which are currently stationed in northern Norway, were primarily charged. – Most of the fish from these trawlers is sent out of the country untreated. Then they have lost much of their social utility, he believes. Fisheries policy spokesperson in Rødt, Geir Jørgensen from Nordland, believes 14 per cent in transfers from the trawlers is too little. Photo: Mathias Sommerseth Kjellmo / news Red: – Vanishingly little news’s calculations show that the sharks in the closed group will get about three tonnes extra with this year’s distribution. Geir Jørgensen is himself a fisherman from Nordland, and sits in the Storting for the party Red. He believes the redistribution is far too small. Three tonnes of extra cod corresponds to an increase in turnover for a commercial fisherman in the shallows below 11 meters of around NOK 120,000. – It is almost nothing to count on – when we had expected a proper redistribution, says Jørgensen. He believes it is particularly regrettable that the Quota Report does not propose extra cod for the fishermen in the open group of sharks. – Therefore, Rødt will propose to take an extra 9,000 tonnes from the trawlers and transfer it to the coastal fishing quota. At the same time, we will make this arrangement applicable to the whole of Northern Norway, says Jørgensen. Olve Grotle is fisheries policy spokesperson for the Conservative Party. Photo: Kjetil Ree Høyre: – Can agree on a lot Høyre’s fisheries policy spokesperson, Olve Grotle, says that the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans does not have the industry with her when she moves quotas from the trawlers and sea fishing fleet to the sharks in the open group. – This will mean that 2,000 fishermen, who are crew on board the large ocean-going vessels, will lose NOK 50,000 in annual wages, Grotle believes. At the same time, he emphasizes that the Conservative Party can stand behind reintroducing the trawl ladder, as the government has proposed in the quota report. – I think it makes sense that we manage to secure a majority across the blocs for a new fisheries policy this time, he points out, adding: – There is a good deal in this Quota Report that we can agree on with the government parties, he says. – Not predictable news has calculated that the trawlers would have lost a total of 9,100 tonnes of cod based on this year’s distribution, if all the measures had been carried out. In addition, parts of the conventional sea fishing vessels will lose 828 tonnes of cod to the coastal fleet. – This will have major consequences for the trawler fleet and the other sea fishing fleet, fears Janne Grethe Strand Aasnæs of Strand rederi. Aasnæs believes that extra cod quotas for the sharks in the open group mean that the shipping company alone loses over NOK 6.3 million. This comes on top of a decrease in the quota this year, she points out. If the decline in cod quotas continues until next year, the situation could become dramatic for the shipping company. – For us, the quota reduction on cod will be over 30 per cent until next year, if the government’s proposal goes through. Our profitability is going to fall dramatically, Aasnæs fears. news has presented the calculations on the quota loss for the trawlers to Fisheries and Oceans Minister Cecilie Myrseth, she does not wish to comment on the matter.
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The trawlers may lose 14 percent of the cod quotas – news Troms and Finnmark
