Greenland Sea ecoregion – fisheries overview

Key signals

• Greenland has the largest number of active vessels in both demersal and pelagic fisheries in the ecoregion, but the number has decreased since 2020 because of the pelagic fleet moving to other areas.
• Landing of pelagic species (mackerel and herring) have in the recent period been close to zero because of low abundance in the ecoregion.
• Landings of cod have increased markedly in the last decade.
• For Greenland halibut, the average fishing mortality has greatly exceeded F_MSY in the past years, and biomass is below MSY B_trigger for all but one stock.
• For golden redfish fishing mortality has decreased over two decades and is now far below F_MSY.
• Tusk fishing mortality has dropped over the last decade and is now below F_MSY.
• There are potential impacts of demersal fishing on benthic habitats as fishing activity and sensitive habitats show spatial overlap.