North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization | est 1984

Statistics

Annual Catch Statistics

Under Article 15 of the Convention for the Conservation of Salmon in the North Atlantic Ocean, Parties must report various statistics to NASCO. From 2019-2024 (during the third reporting cycle) statistics were provided by each Party / jurisdiction and can be found in their Annual Progress Report (APR).

At the 2024 Annual Meeting, Council agreed that the provision of APRs in 2025 and 2026 is not mandatory, but that Parties / jurisdictions should continue to report their catch statistics in a catch reporting template provided by the Secretariat. 

From 2027 the catch statistics will be included in the Performance Indicators as part of the fourth reporting cycle.

Time Series Catch Statistics

The spreadsheet below provides catch statistics over time.

Sheet 1: Nominal catch statistics (in tonnes round fresh weight) by jurisdictions from 1960 to the present in States of Origin waters. This is catch in rivers, estuaries and in the coast up to 12 nautical miles from baselines. Catches up to and including 1985 are from ICES and from 1986 are official returns to NASCO. The latest year’s figures are provisional. The figures for Iceland (as provided to ICES) are included, although Iceland has not been a NASCO Contracting Party since 2009.

Sheet 2: Nominal catch statistics (in tonnes round fresh weight) by jurisdictions from 1960 to the present in Distant-waters. The figures for St Pierre & Miquelon (as provided in their report to the Annual Meetings) are included, although St Pierre & Miquelon is a State not Party to the NASCO Convention . The latest year’s figures are provisional.

Sheet 3: Totals from catch reported in Sheet 1 and Sheet 2.

Sheet 4: Catch and Release fishing is reported by Parties to NASCO by its Contracting Parties and to ICES by Iceland. The practice of catch and release in rod fisheries has become increasingly common as a salmon management / conservation measure in light of the widespread decline in salmon abundance in the North Atlantic. More information is available in NASCO’s Catch and Release Leaflet.

Sheet 5: Estimates of unreported catch provided by NASCO Parties.

ICES Statistics

The ICES Working Group on North Atlantic Salmon (WGNAS) is responsible for the annual assessment of the status of salmon stocks across the North Atlantic. Their annual report provides a range of statistics.