North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization | est 1984

Fisheries Regulation

The Convention for the Conservation of Salmon in the North Atlantic Ocean

Articles 1 and 2 of The Convention for the Conservation of Salmon in the North Atlantic Ocean prohibit fishing for salmon beyond areas of fisheries jurisdiction and, in most areas of the North Atlantic, beyond twelve nautical miles of the baselines. This creates an enormous zone free of directed salmon fisheries.

Article 2 provides the following exceptions:

  • in the West Greenland Commission area, up to 40 nautical miles from the baselines; and
  • in the North-East Atlantic Commission area, within the area of fisheries jurisdiction of the Faroe Islands.
NASCO Commissions Map

The NASCO Convention states that one of the functions of the West Greenland Commission and the North East Atlantic Commission is ‘to propose regulatory measures for fishing in the area of fisheries jurisdiction of a member of salmon originating in the rivers of other Parties’.

Regulatory Measures

Regulatory measures agreed by NASCO have greatly reduced the catch of salmon in the distant-water fisheries at West Greenland and around the Faroe Islands. There has been no commercial harvest by the Faroe Islands since the early 1990s and the Greenland fishery is currently an internal-use fishery. Details of the latest regulatory measures can be found on the NASCO website.