Stock status and setting of quotas
Fishing effort has decreased the last years in accordance to ICES’ recommendations of the reduction of caught ling in the Barents Sea, Norwegian Sea and North Sea.
ICES’ advice for 2010 is to reduce the catches to 6000 tons in the ling fishery in ICES’ areas I and II. For the North Sea the advice is to reduce the catches to 10 000 tons.
For blue ling the quota is zero for 2010, with an advice of total stop of direct fishing after the specie and a reduction of by-catch.
Management and technical regulations of the fishery
The ling fishery is regulated by bilateral quotas and national measures. The Norwegian fishery is regulated by quotas in the EU-, Faroe, and Iceland Economic Zones.
The Norwegian catch of ling in 2000-2009 was taken by long liners (68 per cent), gill nets (26 per cent), and trawlers (5 per cent). The total number of long liners participating in the fishery has declined the last years. The ling fishery is regulated through bilateral agreements that give Norway quotas in the EU zone, Faroese zone and Icelandic zone. Norway is one of the dominating countries in the ling fishery in these zones with 40-50 per cent of the total landings. In the blue ling fishery, Norway fish about 7 per cent.
From 2009 it is not allowed to have a direct fishing on blue ling in the Norwegian zone; the specie can only be caught as by-catch. In the blue ling fishery long line dominated the catch with 54 per cent, gill nets with 40 per cent and trawlers 5 per cent in the period 2000-2009.
The ling and blue ling fisheries in Norway is regulated through access limitations and by gear and area regulations.
Ecosystem/biology
Little is known about the ling and blue ling’s population structure, but it is not unlikely that separate populations or “stocks” occur within its extensive distribution area. Spawning areas, and hence the distribution of eggs and larvae, are widespread. Demersal juveniles are found in quite shallow waters along the coast or on offshore banks, e.g. in the northern North Sea. The species does not seem to form aggregations, e.g. during spawning or during wintertime.
Both ling species are widespread and common along the outer continental shelf and on the upper slope off the European continent (south to the Bay of Biscay) and the British Isles, on the Faroe Island shelf, around Iceland and in the northern North Sea and Skagerrak. Along the Norwegian Sea shelf, ling and blue ling is common from the Shetlands to the south western Barents Sea. The depth range extends from shallow coastal waters to about 600 meters.