Norway North Sea and Skagerrak Herring” Norges Fiskarlag

SURVEILLANCE NO. 4 Report for the “Norway North Sea and Skagerrak herring” Norges Fiskarlag

Report No.: 2018-020, Rev. 2 Authors: Hans Lassen, Sandhya Chaudury Date: 10.12.2018 Certificate number: MSC-F-61406

Project name: Surveillance No. 4 DNV GL - Business Assurance Report title: Report for the “Norway North Sea and Skagerrak herring” DNV GL Business Assurance Customer: Norges Fiskarlag, Pirsenteret, 7462 Trondheim Norway AS Contact person: Tor Bjørklund Larsen Veritasveien 1 Date of issue: 10.12.2018 1322 HØVIK, Norway Project No.: PRJC-504564-2014-MSC-NOR Tel: +47 67 57 99 00 Organisation unit: ZNONO418 http://www.dnvgl.com Report No.: 2018-020, Rev.2 Authors: Hans Lassen, Sandhya Chaudury Certificate No: MSC-F-61406

Objective: The objective of this report is the fourth surveillance audit of the “Norway North Sea and Skagerrak herring fisheries”.

Prepared by: Verified by:

Sandhya Chaudhury [Name] Team Leader and Chain of Custody responsible [title]

Hans Lassen Principle expert

Copyright © DNV GL 2014. All rights reserved. This publication or parts thereof may not be copied, reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, whether digitally or otherwise without the prior written consent of DNV GL. DNV GL and the Horizon Graphic are trademarks of DNV GL AS. The content of this publication shall be kept confidential by the customer, unless otherwise agreed in writing. Reference to part of this publication which may lead to misinterpretation is prohibited. DNV GL Distribution: Keywords: ☒ Unrestricted distribution (internal and MSC Fisheries, Norway North Sea and Skagerrak external) herring, surveillance ☐ Unrestricted distribution within DNV GL ☐ Limited distribution within DNV GL after 3 years ☐ No distribution (confidential) ☐ Secret

Rev. No. Date Reason for Issue Prepared by Verified by 0 2018-11-08 First issue Hans Lassen, Sandhya Chaudhury 1 2018-11-28 Revised rationals Hans Lassen, Sandhya Chaudhury 2 2018-12-10 Harmonisation Hans Lassen, Sandhya Chaudhury

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Table of contents

GLOSSARY ...... 4 Abbreviations & acronyms 4 Stock assessment reference points 4

1 GENERAL INFORMATION ...... 5

2 BACKGROUND ...... 7 2.1 Fishery overview and catch data 7 2.2 Stock Status - North Sea Autumn Spawning Herring 14 2.3 Impact on the ecosystem 17 2.4 Changes to the management system 19 2.5 CoC considerations 19 2.6 Summary of Assessment Conditions 19

3 THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS ...... 20 3.1 Scope of the assessment 21 3.2 History of the assessments 21 3.3 Harmonisation 25 3.4 Inseparable or Practically Inseparable (IPI) stocks 26

4 RESULTS ...... 27 4.1 Principle Level Scores 27

5 CONCLUSION ...... 30

6 REFERENCES ...... 31

APPENDICES ...... 34 Appendix 1. Re-scoring evaluation table 34 Appendix 2. Condition 1: Harvest Control Rules 38 Appendix 3: Stakeholder submissions 41 Appendix 4. Surveillance audit information 45 Appendix 5. Additional detail on conditions/ actions/ results 45 Appendix 6. Revised Surveillance Program 45 Appendix 7. List of member vessels: North Sea herrings 46

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GLOSSARY

Abbreviations & acronyms ACOM ICES Advisory Committee on Management CAB Conformity assessment body COC Chain of Custody CPUE Catch per unit of effort CR Certification Requirements DoF Directorate of Fisheries EEZ Exclusive Economic Zone EU European Union HCR Harvest Control Rule ICES International Council for the Exploration of the Sea IMR Institute of Marine Research (Havforskninsinstituttet, Norway) MP Management plan MSC Marine Stewardship Council NSASH North Sea Autumn Spawning Herring NEAFC North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission NFA Norwegian Fishermen’s Association NFVOA Norwegian Fishing Vessel Owners Association UoA Unit of Assessment UoC Unit of Certification WBSS Western Baltic Spring Spawning Herring

Stock assessment reference points

B0 The (spawning) biomass expected if there had been no fishing (assuming recruitment as estimated through stock assessment).

Blim Spawning biomass limit reference point, sometimes used as a trigger within harvest control rules, or defined as the point below which recruitment is expected to be impaired or the stock dynamics are unknown

Bmsy Spawning Biomass at which the maximum sustainable yield is expected

(sometimes expressed as SBmsy)

Btarg Spawning biomass target reference point

Flim Exploitation rate limit reference point, often taken as Fmsy based on UNFSA

Fmsy Fishing mortality rate associated with the achieving maximum sustainable yield

Ftarg Fishing mortality target reference point MSY Maximum Sustainable Yield

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1 GENERAL INFORMATION

Table 1 General information Fishery name Norway North Sea and Skagerrak herring fishery Unit(s) of Assessment Species: Herring (Clupea harengus) (UoA) Stock: North Sea herring Geographical area: North Sea and Skagerrak; ICES Division IV and IIIa; within EEZ of Norway Harvest method: Purse-seine and Pelagic trawl Management: The stock is managed according to EU-Norway Agreement. This agreement is implemented in Norway under National management systems, advised by ICES. Client group: The fishery is certified by the client Norges Fiskarlag on behalf of all registered vessels in the Norwegian fleet fishing within the Unit of Certification.

Other eligible fishers: Not applicable Date certified 30 July 2014 Date of expiry 29 July 2019 Surveillance level and Surveillance level 1 (surveillance level 0 according to v. 1.3), type Off-site surveillance Date of surveillance 16-17 October 2018 audit Surveillance stage 1st Surveillance 2nd Surveillance 3rd Surveillance 4th Surveillance X Other (expedited etc) Surveillance team Lead assessor: Sandhya Chaudhury Assessor(s):Hans Lassen CAB name DNV GL Business Assurance CAB contact details Address Veritasveien 1 1322 HØVIK, Norway http://www.dnvgl.com Phone/Fax +4767579900/+4797762507 Email [email protected] Contact name(s) Mrs. Sandhya Chaudhury Client contact details Address Norges Fiskarlag, Pirsenteret, 7462 Trondheim, Norway Phone/Fax +47 980 33 041 Email [email protected] / [email protected] Contact name(s) Tor Bjørklund Larsen

This report contains the findings of the fourth annual MSC Fisheries surveillance audit conducted for the Norway North Sea and Skagerrak herring fisheries during 16-17 October 2018. The purpose of this annual Surveillance Report is:

1. To establish and report on any material changes to the circumstances and practices affecting the original complying assessment of the fishery; 2. To monitor the progress made to comply with any Conditions raised and described in the Public Certification Report of 03.07.2014 and in the corresponding Action Plan drawn up by the client;

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3. To monitor any actions taken in response to any Recommendations made in the Public Report; 4. To re-score any Performance Indicators (PI) where practice or circumstances have materially changed during the intervening year, focusing on those PIs that form the basis of Conditions raised.

The primary focus of this surveillance report is to review the changes occurred since the previous year. For a complete picture of the fishery, this report should be read in conjunction with the Public Certification Report available for download at www.msc.org.

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2 BACKGROUND

The fourth surveillance audit of the Norway North Sea and Skagerrak herring fishery is based on the Re-assessment Public Certification Report DNV GL dated 3 July 2014. The current certificate is valid until 29 July 2019. Information from the second certification period is available at: https://fisheries.msc.org/en/fisheries/norway-north-sea-and-skagerrak-herring/@@assessments The default assessment tree, set out in the MSC Certification Requirements, v 1.3, was used for the re-assessment. The fishery attained a score of 80 or more against each of the MSC Principles and did not score less than 60 against any of the individual MSC Criteria. The fishery did not score below 80 against on any of the scoring indicators; hence no conditions were set for the certification of the fishery. No recommendations were set for the certification of the fishery.

2.1 Fishery overview and catch data

The fishery continued as in previous years. The same gears purse seine and pelagic trawls were used. The grounds are unchanged, Figure 1. Catch data for 2016-2018 are presented in Table 2 TAC and Catch DataTable 2 and Table 3. Table 2 TAC and Catch Data TAC Year 2017 Amount 481,608 MT UoA share of TAC Year 2017 Amount 145,282 MT UoC share of TAC Year 2017 Amount 145,282 MT Total green weight catch Year (most recent) 2017 Amount 135,804 MT by UoC Year (second most 2016 Amount 154,171 MT recent)

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Table 3 Norway North Sea and Skagerrak Herring Total green weight catch taken by the client group. Source: Directorate of Fisheries sales notes Fishing year TAC (Tonnes) UoC share Client Total green weight catch taken by the client group of the total share of TAC the total (Tonnes) TAC (Tonnes)