NOTE: This is largely a fisheries based effort, though the Northwest Atlantic Fishing Organization Convention Amendment does promote an ecosystem approach.

• Collaboration: Collaboration across the range of resource users (12 countries utilizing the NAFO Convention Area – four using Exclusive Economic Zones and remainder fishing in the Regulatory Area.)

Mission

The primary mission of the Northwest Atlantic Fishing Organization (NAFO) has been to contribute through consultation and cooperation to the optimum utilization, rational management and conservation of the fishery resources of the Convention Area. NAFO aims to promote contemporary ideas for international collaboration in the high seas based on the scientific research fundamentals.

Objectives

NAFO’s objectives were recently updated to include an ecosystem approach to fisheries management. The Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) explains the new approach:

Lead Organizations

• Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO)

Key Parties

• Government of Canada: Fisheries and Oceans Canada
• Government of Canada: Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, on Foreign Overfishing
• Government of United States of America
• Government of France (in respect of St. Pierre et Miquelon)
• Government of Denmark (in respect of Faroe Islands and Greenland)
• World Wildlife Fund (lobbied for stricter harvest controls)

NAFO Convention  Area and the Regulatory Area

The NAFO Convention Area encompasses a large portion of the North Atlantic Ocean and includes the 200-mile exclusive economic zones of coastal states. However, regulatory action by NAFO is limited to those parts of the Convention Area beyond areas of national jurisdiction. This is called the Regulatory Area.

Constituent Bodies

The constituent bodies of NAFO are the General Council, Scientific Council, Fisheries Commission, and the Secretariat, whose specific functions are set out in the Convention, Rules of Procedure and the Staff Rules.

• The General Council is responsible for internal affairs and external relations. The General Council Chair also serves as the President of NAFO.
• The Scientific Council gives advice on upon request on the status of fish stocks in the NAFO Convention Area to Fisheries Commission and Coastal States. This group publishes the NAFO Journal of Northwest Atlantic Fishery Science.
• The Fisheries Commission is responsible for the management and conservation of fishery resources and the Regulatory Area (waters outside the EEZs). It annually decides on the NAFO fisheries regulations, TACs, and quotas.
• The Secretariat (NAFO headquarters) is located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. 

In the early 1990s, the collapse and closure of the cod fishery drew attention to overfishing in the Grand Banks area. This ecological circumstance paired with the declaration of exclusive economic zones (EEZs) made for conflicting claims on an already dwindling resource.

Consequently the Convention on Future Multilateral Cooperation in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, came into force on January 1, 1979 following the ratification, acceptance and approval by seven signatories: Canada, Cuba, the European Economic Community, German Democratic Republic, Iceland, Norway, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

This Convention established the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) and replaced the 1949 International Convention for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries and the International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries.

The Ecosystem

Located on a shallow continental shelf, the Grand Banks receive a rich supply of nutrients and oxygen in the cold Labrador current. This area contains one of the largest fish stocks of the Atlantic Ocean, and fleets from all over the world have been fishing here regularly for centuries.

Threats

• Groundfish Collapse and Bycatch. The Northwest Atlantic Fishing Organization (NAFO) Regulatory Area includes the Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap off Newfoundland’s east coast which historically supported a thriving groundfish population. However, from the 1960s to the 1980s, excessive fishing pushed the stocks to the point of collapse. In 1992, a Canadian moratorium closed the commercial Northern cod fishery. Species have been slow to recover which the World Wildlife Fund attributes to excessive bycatch which peaked in 2003 when bycatch amounts were estimated to be over 80 percent of the remaining cod stock.
• Social Conflict. The mismatch of ecological and management boundaries are further complicating rehabilitation efforts. Although Canada has had exclusive jurisdiction over its 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) since 1977, biologically important areas of the Grand Banks immediately adjacent to the EEZ fall under international high seas management by NAFO. Thus, stocks are split between management paradigms and are not benefiting from complete protections. Canada’s Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, on Foreign Overfishing recommended that the nation declare custodial rights over the split stocks, by claiming the Flemish Cap under their jurisdiction. This is obviously a contentious proposal since a variety of nations fish the NAFO Convention Area.

Based on scientific advice, the Northwest Atlantic Fishing Organization (NAFO) adopts a comprehensive range of management and conservation measures.

Harvest Regulations

The NAFO Fisheries Commission meets once a year to adopt Conservation and Enforcement Measures (CEM) for the international fisheries. Such measures include setting limits for total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas (the share of the TAC that each member State is allowed to fish) for each stock. While the annually changing TACs and quotas (including moratoria) as listed in the NAFO quota table are among the most prominent management measures to regulate fisheries, there are a number of other measures that can also play and important role to protect fishery resources and their environment. As a precautionary measure in the context of an Ecosystem Approach, NAFO has closed six possible vulnerable marine ecosystems to bottom fisheries (five seamounts and a large coral area along the southern Grand Banks).

Other NAFO management measures include bycatch and gear restrictions, minimum fish size regulations as well as area and time limitations.

Resource Assessment

To track stock status, NAFO tracks habitat and biology, geographic distribution, exploitation (catch versus total allowed catch), assessment (recruitment, biomass, mortality data and models), biological state and trend, management advice, and data sources for a number of commercially harvested species. Species assessed:

• American Plaice - Flemish Cap
• American Plaice - Grand Bank
• Atlantic Cod - Flemish Cap
• Atlantic Cod - Grand Bank
• Atlantic cod - Northeast Newfoundland Shelf and Northern Grand Bank
• Capelin - Southern Grand Bank
• Greenland halibut - Labrador Shelf, Northeast Newfoundland Shelf, Northern Grand Bank
• Northern Prawn - Flemish Cap
• Northern Prawn - Grand Bank
• Redfish - Flemish Cap
• Redfish - North and Southeastern Grand Bank
• Redfish - Southwestern Grand Bank
• Squid - Scotian Shelf, Grand Bank
• Thorny skate - Grand Bank
• White hake - Southern Grand Bank
• Witch flounder - Northeast Newfoundland Shelf and Northern Grand Bank
• Witch flounder - Southern Grand Bank
• Yellowtail flounder - Grand Bank

Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization. http://www.nafo.int/about/frames/about.html

Fisheries and Oceans Canada. NAFO: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/international/media/bk_nafo-opano-eng.htm