REPORT of the THIRTY-SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING of the WEST GREENLAND COMMISSION 5 – 7 JUNE 2019 Tromsø, Norway

REPORT OF THE THIRTY-SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE WEST GREENLAND COMMISSION 5 – 7 JUNE 2019 Tromsø, Norway Chair: Carl McLean (Canada) Vice-Chair: Kimberly Damon-Randall (USA) Rapporteur: Ian Russell (European Union) Secretary: Emma Hatfield WGC(19)10 WGC(19)10 Report of the Thirty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the West Greenland Commission of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization Scandic Ishavshotel, Tromsø, Norway 5 – 7 June 2019 1. Opening of the Meeting 1.1 The Chair, Carl McLean (Canada), opened the Meeting and welcomed delegates to Tromsø. He thanked the hosts for the beautiful venue and surroundings for the meeting, and the Secretariat for the preparations made for the Annual Meeting. 1.2 The Chair advised that there would be no verbal opening statements this year. Written Opening Statements were tabled by Canada, the United States and Denmark (in respect of the Faroe Islands and Greenland) (Annex 1). 1.3 A list of participants at the Thirty-Sixth Annual Meetings of the Council and Commissions of NASCO is included as Annex 2. 2. Adoption of the Agenda 2.1 The Draft Agenda issued to all delegates on 18 April 2019 included an item on the report of an Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Commission. It was subsequently agreed that there would not be an Inter-Sessional Meeting. The Commission therefore agreed that this item (Item 5) should be removed from the agenda. The Commission adopted its revised Agenda, WGC(19)08 (Annex 3). 3. Nomination of a Rapporteur 3.1 Ian Russell (European Union) was appointed as Rapporteur for the meeting. 4. Review of the 2018 Fishery and ACOM Report from ICES on Salmon Stocks in the Commission Area 4.1 The Chair noted that a new three-year regulatory measure came into effect in 2018. He asked the representative of Denmark (in respect of the Faroe Islands and Greenland) (DFG) to introduce document WGC(19)04, describing the events in the West Greenland salmon fishery in 2018. The Chair reminded members of the Commission that issues related to the 2019 fishery should be raised under a later agenda item. 4.2 The representative of DFG indicated that, in accordance with the regulatory measure (WGC(18)11), the quota for the Greenland fishery in 2018 was set at 30 t for the entire fishery, this to include all sectors of the fishery. A new Executive Order for salmon fishing came into effect in 2018 in order to implement the requirements within the regulatory measure, such as the need for all fishers to hold licenses, mandatory reporting, including of zero-catches, and no licenses being issued to Atlantic salmon fishers who have not provided a full catch report in the previous year. Salmon fishers were required to report daily, or every time their nets were mended, either directly to the Greenlandic Fisheries License Control Authority (GFLK), or indirectly through the municipalities. There were no landings of Atlantic salmon to factories in 2018. The 1 season again ran from 15 August – 31 October, unless the quota was exhausted earlier, and the export ban on salmon was also continued. The representative of DFG advised that the total catch recorded by the authorities on 31 October was 18.4 t. However, it became apparent that certain catches had not been registered and the total catch, taking account of reports received subsequently, rose to 26.8 t. 4.3 Following the close of the fishery, a letter was sent to fishers who had held a license in 2018 but had not reported, which reminded them of the obligation to report and of the consequences of non-reporting. A press release was also issued by the Ministry. These actions resulted in a number of reports being received after the fishery had closed, although some fishers stated that they had reported but had still received a reminder letter. Other factors had contributed to reporting difficulties in 2018, including a number of fishers without digital skills or tools who had reported in paper form to their municipal office, but where reports had not subsequently been forwarded to GFLK. Some reports had also been wrongly registered in GFLK. As a result of the final adjustments, the final reported catch rose to 40.5 t. 4.4 In response to questions from the representative of the United States, the representative of DFG advised that the private fishery had closed on 19 October, while the professional fishery had closed on 31 October. She also confirmed that the majority of fish landed were recorded as gutted weights, but that these were adjusted and reported to ICES as whole weights. Since a small number of fish may be landed and reported as whole weights, this might result in a small element of over-reporting of the total reported weight. Responding to a question from the representative of Canada, the representative of DFG indicated that 75% of professional fishers and 70% of private fishers had reported their landings in 2018. 4.5 The representative of the United States asked if there had been any follow-up of those fishers who had not reported and also asked for clarification about the reduction in the proportion of the private-use catch reported by professional fishers between 2017 and 2018. The representative of DFG indicated that Greenland had already contacted non- respondents and indicated that when the new quota for 2019 is announced, and new licenses are applied for, this would provide a further opportunity to seek information on catches in the previous year. She further clarified that this could lead to an additional revision of the reported catch for 2018. If so, there would be a commensurate reduction in the quota for 2019. With regard to the private catch, the representative of DFG indicated that 20 t of the 2018 quota had been allocated to professional fishers and 10 t to private fishers but suggested that the new licensing procedures may have accounted for some confusion in what to report when. This may have accounted for the reduction in professional fishers reporting private-use landings. 4.6 In response to questions from the representative of the NGOs, the representative of DFG confirmed that there had been no change to the conditions attached to professional licenses in 2018. The only change had been the introduction of licenses for private fishers; separate licenses were also required to fish for other species and for hunting. She further clarified that the rules about reporting applied to all fishers and that it would not be possible for a professional fisher who had failed to report previously to be issued a private license. She also advised that professional fishers were allowed to sell fish to outlets other than open-air markets where there was no open-air market in the local community. 4.7 It was noted that detailed written answers had been prepared by the representative of DFG in response to additional questions from the representative of the United States 2 that had been sent by email. It was agreed that this additional information would be made available to the Commission as document WGC(19)07 (Annex 4). 4.8 A representative of ICES, Martha Robertson, presented a report on the scientific advice on salmon stocks in the West Greenland Commission area based on the ICES Advisory Committee (ACOM) report, CNL(19)08. This report contains the scientific advice relevant to all Commissions. Dr Robertson’s presentation to the Commission is available as document WGC(19)11 (Annex 5). 4.9 In response to a question from the representative of the United States in relation to the implications of better spatial and temporal coverage in the West Greenland sampling programme, ICES confirmed that the more samples were collected the more confident one could be in the results and in supporting management efforts to help protect the weakest stocks. In response to a question from the Chair, ICES stated that there was no clear explanation for the increase in the proportion of North American fish in the harvest at West Greenland in the past three years, but that this may represent the distribution of sampling effort and annual variability in the continent of origin of fish available to the fishery. 5. Mixed-Stock Fisheries Conducted by Members of the Commission 5.1 Under the Council’s ‘Action Plan for taking forward the recommendations of the External Performance Review and the review of the ‘Next Steps’ for NASCO’, CNL(13)38, it was agreed that there should be agenda items in each of the Commissions to allow for a focus on mixed-stock fisheries (MSFs). 5.2 Canada (NAC(19)03) and the European Union (NEA(19)06) tabled papers providing a description of the MSFs still operating in their jurisdictions, the most recent catch data, any updates to the Implementation Plans (IPs) relating to MSFs and any changes or developments in the management of MSFs in the IP period to implement NASCO’s agreements. The United States did not report as there are no directed wild Atlantic salmon fisheries in the United States. 5.3 A representative of Canada provided a summary of the subsistence (food, social, and ceremonial) fisheries that operate in coastal and estuarine areas of Labrador and are prosecuted by indigenous groups and Labrador residents. The management of these fisheries includes a number of controls related to gear, seasons, weekly closures, carcass tagging of harvested salmon, a logbook programme for reporting catches, a limit on total harvest using tags and a prohibition on sales. In 2018, the recorded harvest was 33 t which was slightly lower than in previous years.

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