In the early days of fisheries management, the fishing year in Iceland coincided with the calendar year.

However, this was later altered , and for many years now the fishing year has run from September 1st  through August 31st.  Icelanders say if has brought many benefits including one from the marketing point of view and to better serve climatic conditions which are often extremely severe in December.

The Norwegians, with similar weather patterns, have clearly seen that adopting a similar method could also bring improvements to its industry. As a result a proposal is now being submitted to the Norwegian Storting (parliament) to change the Norwegian fishing year from the calendar year to the Icelandic model, according to Icelandic fishing sources.

Meanwhile, the Norwegian Government has decided to give its Ministry for Fisheries and Coast Affairs the responsibility for setting up a new full spectrum monitoring and information system for the Northern Sea and coast areas. It will be known as Barents Watch.

The operations centre for the public information portal for northern sea areas will be located in Tromsø, while the parallel closed monitoring system for the sea traffic activities in the Norwegian and Barents Sea will be in Norway’s north easternmost town of Vardø.

BarentsWatch is envisaged as a vital tool for providing the Norwegian authorities with a coherent picture of what may be happening at any time in the very extensive sea areas in the North, with particular emphasis on fishing related matters.

This in turn will serve to strengthen Norway’s role as a responsible manager of the sea areas and thereby safeguard the substantial assets they represent.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---