The number of signed international agreements related to fisheries management is steadily increasing

IUU fishing has been identified as a major threat to fisheries conservation and marine biodiversity. It can lead to a collapse of a fishery, which in turn may cause adverse consequences for the livelihood of people depending on it.

Norway and Russia share the stocks of cod, haddock and capelin in the Barents Sea. Close cooperation between the two countries ensures a rational joint management of these fishery resources. Bilateral cooperation in the fisheries sector was first institutionalized in the 1950s in the field of marine research, formalizing collaboration in marine research that already had a 50-year history.

The Agreement on bilateral fisheries collaboration between Norway and Greenland was signed in September 1991, and is based on the common understanding of the need to stop illegal, unregulated and unreported fisheries in both states’ exclusive economic zones.