The joint Russian-Norwegian governance of the Barents Sea LME fisheries

The Barents Sea is a rich fishing area with the biggest cod stock in the world. This stock is now in excellent conditions, producing record catches fully within safe and sustainable biological parameters. The spawning stock biomass of the main groundfish species has increased threefold over the last 15 years. The Barents Sea management is among the most successful management regimes of a major fishery area anywhere, and the focus of this paper is on the governance of the fisheries. The joint Russian-Norwegian governance over the last almost 40 years, through the Joint Fisheries Commission, is a major element in this successful result. The scientific cooperation is described and how it is now integrated into the work of the Commission. The development of long-term strategies for management of joint stocks is described, resulting in agreement on a set of "decision rules" and new regulatory decisions. The period of major problems with overfishing of quotas is described. The level and comprehensiveness of the cooperation is explained with a discussion of the present agreement, for 2015. The issues of zonal borders and the Svalbard Fishery Protection Zone are explained. The paper concludes with comments on the outlook for the future, considering the present situation in relation to developments in Crimea and Ukraine, and the resulting sanctions.