Canadian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Loyola Hearn, met with Icelandic Minister of Fisheries, Einar K. Gudfinnsson, on 13 November to discuss recent advances in the management of high seas fish stocks and to share information about their respective domestic fishing industries.
IUU fishing was discussed, following agreements to increase measures to deal with the crime, including denying IUU vessels access to ports and provisions, and preventing illegally caught fish from entering markets.
Reforming Regional Fisheries Management Organisations, such as Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) and the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC), is also a priority for the ministers.
NAFO recently announced significant changes to the way it deals with the vessels of its members caught fishing for moratoria species or misreporting their catch. NAFO members also agreed to share information on IUU vessels with NEAFC to create a Pan-Atlantic list. Ministers Hearn and Gudfinnsson discussed how they could build on these achievements to strengthen enforcement and deal with other illegal fishing situations, such as the overfishing of east Atlantic bluefin tuna at the upcoming meeting of the International Commission for Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.
Other topics discussed were harvesting and processing practices, scientific research, and the challenges that both counties face for small fishing communities.
