At a meeting held on 23-24 January, Norway and the EU agreed to close off a large area of the North Sea to fishing operations. From 14 February to 30 April, the area will be closed to all fisheries except for pelagic fisheries and fishing for sandeel.

Norway and the EU will work together to ensure effective monitoring of the closed area. Specific measures will be discussed at a follow-up meeting on 2 February.

The parties further agreed to cooperate on additional measures to modify harvesting patterns for cod fisheries. Such measures aim at increasing mesh sizes, utilizing more selective gear and lowering discard levels.

The measures that have now been agreed upon represent the first step of a more comprehensive plan to rebuild the North Sea cod stock. The parties will elaborate further details of the plan at a meeting scheduled for the end of March.