Key facts about northern Atlantic fishing

The north Atlantic, and in particular the waters around Norway and Greenland, has a plentiful stock of cod and haddock for the UK’s fish & chip shops.

The UK imports most of the fish it eats and exports most of what it catches;

1. Cod and haddock are UK consumers' favourite fish;
2. These fish are found in large quantities in the distant waters north of the UK;
3. To provide British fish for our fish & chip shops, the UK’s trawler Kirkella needs access to quotas from Norway, Svalbard, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and NAFO (Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization);
4. If these quotas are unavailable, the UK will have to import even more of its cod and haddock from Norway and elsewhere. 
5. In the last two years the results of negotiations have been a disaster for the fleet. For 2024 the UK has been allocated only 700 tonnes of cod in Norwegian waters and 4,144 tonnes around Svalbard. The UK has also lost fishing opportunities in Greenland. Therefore, the total available cod in distant waters for 2024 is less than 6,000 tonnes (if we include 1,100 tonnes of NAFO quota allocated to the UK fleet) compared with a total of 19,500 in 2018.