The future of fishing

Fishing is our primary business sector and is fundamental to our country's economy. It is therefore important that we manage it in a sustainable way, so that our most important resource can also benefit future generations. The conclusions of the Greenland Fisheries Commission's final report are worrying and its recommendations are clear:

1. Preserve resources for the future, in order to benefit employment, earnings and welfare
2. Provide the fishing sector with a stable and predictable framework, in order to secure investment in further development, and target any grant opportunities according to the overall goals of fishing policy.
3. Design management of fishing so the individual fisherman can secure a good income and the total economic rent can be increased in order to secure a fair distribution thereof through approproate taxation.
4. Implement arms-length principle in the management system in order to secure transparency and equal treatment.
5. Expand ownership of resource utilisation among ship owners instead of increasing capacity.
6. Implement labourmarket and education policies in connection with changes to the fishing policy in order to secire socially sustainable transitions.

As of now, coastal halibut fishery exceeds the biological recommendations by 70 % and codfishing exceeds the recommendations by 300 %. In other words, we are overfishing our resources to an extent where we cannot secure enough fish for our children and grandchildren. We are heading towards a collapse within a few years. We have to take the situation seriously.

The population of halibut is decreasing and we now have to catch more fish in order to reach the same quantities as only a few years back. The amount of players is disproportionate to the actual need - and what is sustainable. A dinghy fisherman has to catch approximately 33 tonnes of halibut or 67 tonnes of codfish in order to provide for his family, but estimates suggest that 80 % of halibut licence holders and 65 % of codfish licence holders are unable to reach this level.

As a society, we cannot maintain them in this situation, when there are other options for earning a more sustainable income in other industries, which are desperate for labour. We have to give those, who are unable to provide for themselves today, the opportunity to pursue an education within another field of work. This will not only benefit many families, but also our society as a whole.

The situation cannot be tolerated indefinitely, and GBA would like to encourage our decisionmakers to take the recommendations of the commission very seriously and develop the future fishing policy accordingly. Fishing will remain our main livelihood for many years to come and our decendants should also be able to benefit from it.