Cold water prawn quotas on a downward slide
Pandalus Borealis is by far the dominant species on the market for cold water prawns, several stocks inhabit Greenland, Canada, Norway and the Barents Sea. The two largest stocks, Western Greenland and Eastern Canada, make up about 85% of the total catch and have been cut down substantially during the last five years.
Since the early 1980s and until 2004 yearly, catches of cold water prawns have increased at an average rate of 6% per year to a level of around 450,000 T world-wide at the peak in 2004. However, for the last 10 years, the annual catches have on average declined by 4% per year and in 2014 the annual catch was 267,500 T and the forecast for 2015 is 235,000 T, as quotas are expected to decline further.
Steady decline in Greenland
In Greenland, the total allowable catch has dropped more than 30% from 2010 to 2014 and biologists at Greenland's Institute for Natural Resources recommends to further reduce the TAC by 25,0000 t in 2015, citing the following reasons:
- Declining biomass off shore, small increase inshore
- Low number of small prawns/recruits on the way for future fishery
- Lesser dissemination in catching areas
- Increase in the cod biomass in the prawn fishing areas (primarily in the southern part of West Greenland) over the last 3 years. The cod is expected to consume some of the prawns. (Source: www.natur.gl)
The increased occurrence of cod and declining volume of prawns is believed to be partly caused by rising water temperatures around Greenland. As prawns prefer colder water, they are believed to be moving north and the cod follow their favourite pray up along the coast. It is not known for a fact, whether there actually are less prawns or if they have moved elsewhere than the usual fishing grounds.
The Greenlandic TAC is set by the Government of Greenland based on the scientific advice taking certain societal issues into account.
Sudden drop in Canada
When it comes to the Canadian TAC, it has fluctuated through the last five years, but the general trend is a decline. From 2013 to 2014 it took a slash of 22%, mainly due to declining biomass. In the 2013/14 catching season, the Canadian fishermen had trouble finding prawns to catch, whether this was because there were no prawns, or, if they had moved to other areas than the usual catching grounds is uncertain. In Canada, the quota is set at the regional level. For 2015, some fishing areas are expected to be rendered in moratorium, meaning totally closed for fishing.
Sustainable fisheries
Both the Greenlandic and Canadian stocks are MSC certified, which further secures that the fisheries are well managed and constantly supervised. As the world's largest producer of cold water prawns, Royal Greenland supports the sustainable utilization of the prawn stocks, in order to ensure the future livelihood for both the fishermen delivering to us and the Greenlandic population as a whole, as well as ensuring our future base for our business. Read more about the movements of the Greenlandic prawn stock and the current price situation for cold water prawns.
