Fisheries management in a changing climate: The Norwegian experience

Dear friends and colleagues,

It’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to address this audience on such an important occasion. Climate change poses challenges that we cannot fail to overcome – changes that are likely to affect the way we manage our marine environments.

The sea is a “barometer for climate change”: Extensive surveillance of marine eco-systems around the world gives us a precise knowledge as to what extent the climate has changed.       

Norway is an ocean-state. We depend on harvesting the riches of the sea. We have a long experience in management of marine resources, through national, bilateral as well as multilateral management regimes. Ecological considerations are the principal concern in our approach to management of the sea.     

Climate change, and its’ potentially dramatic consequences for the marine environment, calls for a strengthening of the management of our oceans. We know that climate changes affect the natural environment and the marine ecosystems. Changes in temperature and acidification of the ocean are two of the potential consequences that we do not yet know the full implications of.

In Norway, we acknowledge that high temperatures in the ocean might change the livelihood of certain fish-stocks.  New stocks might migrate into our waters, and familiar commercial fish-stocks might emigrate to colder waters.

One of our main challenges is to strengthen the fish stocks’ resilience towards potential negative changes in the marine eco-systems. Furthermore, if climate change has an impact on our marine organisms’ ability to reproduce, we need to exercise a particular caution of the magnitude in which we harvest.

Admittedly, the spawning stock of Arctic cod in the Barents Sea has now reached an all-time high. This is primarily due to good management, but possibly also to more warm seawater flowing into the basin.     

Good management is the key – and good management requires knowledge and strong management systems.

Norway has a history of contributing to the strengthening of ocean management worldwide, through development aid to oceans-states. We have assisted Namibia, South Africa and Brazil in establishing national legal frameworks of fishery legislation and management systems. At present, we are engaged in a similar project in Vietnam, assisting in development of fisheries legislation and in implementing proper management regimes. These efforts will hopefully contribute to fish-stocks that are resilient to the potentially harmful effects of ecosystem changes in oceans far away from our own.

Overfishing and illegal fishing placed considerable strain on the remaining resources. These constituted the greatest threat to sustainable management of fisheries resources in Norwegian marine areas, and are given high priority in Norway’s fisheries and High North policies, and have been reduced by 85 per cent over the last five years.

Norway values a robust overall regime for fisheries management. Regional and international organisations such as the joint Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission and the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) are important control instruments. ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Seas) and the FAO are also important forums for developing regulations and influencing the attitudes of other players in issues of vital importance to Norway.

Recent decades have seen the signing of a long list of bilateral and regional agreements with the object of achieving effective and sustainable management of fisheries resources. The EU is moving in the same direction with regard to management criteria, and it will be important to shift Russia and other central players in the North Atlantic towards a common understanding of the premises for sustainable management of natural marine resources.

As one of the worlds’ leading exporters of seafood, Norway is among the countries that could suffer greatly from the impacts of climate change on marine environments. As a western industrial country, we also have a special obligation to provide solutions to the climate challenge.

We intend to manage our marine resources in a way that future generations can live from them. Through research-based resources management, a political will for change and cooperation, I believe we will succeed.