The Norwegian spring-spawning herring fishery has been under pressure for the past 10 years. Total catches often exceeded scientific advice, the stock declined, and key coastal states disagreed on how to share the fish.

By 2025, a partial shift toward cooperation emerged. Still, the decade as a whole shows how hard it has been to manage one of the North-East Atlantic’s most valuable shared stocks.

Quotas Often Far Above Scientific Advice

Across the decade, coastal states repeatedly set their own quotas and fished more than scientists advised.

In 2015, ICES recommended about 283,000 tonnes, but self-assigned quotas reached 328,000 tonnes, and catches landed at 328,740 tonnes—16% above the advice.

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This pattern continued. In 2017, ICES advised roughly 437,000 tonnes, but countries allocated themselves over 805,000 tonnes, catching around 721,500 tonnes—again, far too high.

Overshooting intensified in 2019. Landings reached 777,165 tonnes, about 32% above the scientific recommendation.

As the stock declined, ICES cut its advice. It dropped to 511,000 tonnes in 2023 and 390,000 tonnes in 2024, reflecting concerns over stock health. Still, in 2024, catches again exceeded the self-set quota of 446,928 tonnes, reaching about 460,000 tonnes.

For 2025, ICES advised a slight rise to 401,794 tonnes, helped by a strong 2021 year class. But coastal states again planned a higher combined catch of around 435,000 tonnes, as no complete sharing agreement existed.

Who Fished What? The 2025 Allocation

The fishery involves Norway, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Russia, the EU and the UK. Since 2013, no complete multilateral quota-sharing deal has been in place. Each state has instead set its own quota.

A rare breakthrough came in 2025: Norway and the Faroe Islands reached a bilateral agreement. Both countries voluntarily reduced their shares to help keep the total catch closer to scientific advice. Their shares of the 2025 TAC (401,794 tonnes) were:

  • Norway: 64.2% (~257,871 tonnes)
  • Faroe Islands: 10% (~40,179 tonnes)
  • These reductions left about 25.8% unallocated, so that Iceland, Russia, the EU and the UK could fish without pushing total catches too high—if they exercised restraint.

Other players’ contributions in recent years give a sense of their expected 2025 take: Iceland caught around 13% in 2022; Russia about 10%; the EU and UK much smaller shares of only a few per cent each.

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The Norway–Faroe agreement was the first quota-sharing pact of any kind since 2013, and officials hoped it would encourage wider cooperation in future years.

Stock in Decline, But Glimmers of Hope

The herring stock grew strong in the early 2010s, reaching a peak around 2014. But from then onwards, its spawning-stock biomass (SSB) entered a long decline.

ICES reported the SSB had fallen below the precautionary threshold (MSY B_trigger ≈ 3.18 million tonnes), staying below it through 2025. The 2025 estimate was 2.93 million tonnes—above the critical limit of ~2.5 million tonnes, but still not at a safe level for long-term stability.

Overfishing and weak recruitment were the leading causes of this decline. Fishing mortality in 2024 was 0.134, above the management target of 0.107—showing that fishing pressure remained too high.

Yet not all news was bleak. ICES highlighted the strong 2021 year class and the earlier 2016 cohort as reasons for cautious optimism. These helped justify the slight quota increase for 2025, signalling that the stock could stabilise if countries respect scientific limits in the years ahead.

Years of Conflict Over Herring

The political side of the fishery has been almost as turbulent as the biological one.

A long-running dispute has simmered since the collapse of the international sharing agreement in 2013. Without a joint formula, each state claimed the share it believed it was entitled to.

The Faroe Islands ignited one of the most dramatic episodes when it tripled its herring quota in 2013, far above the previous agreement’s share. The EU responded with sanctions, including bans on Faroese herring imports and threats to close EU ports to Faroese vessels.

The Faroes challenged the sanctions, arguing that the issue could only be resolved through negotiations among all coastal states. Sanctions were lifted in 2014, but the damage to trust lasted for years.

Meanwhile, countries continued to set unilateral quotas that collectively exceeded ICES advice. In 2020, this mismanagement reached a turning point when the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) suspended the eco-certification for Atlanto-Scandian herring.

The reason was simple: actual fishing levels were too high, and there was no international agreement to protect the stock. Loss of certification threatened the fishery’s market reputation and pressured governments to act.

Shifting migration patterns added further tension. Climate-related changes led herring to move further north, often spending an extended time near Norway.

The Faroe Islands struggled to find herring in their own waters in recent seasons, strengthening their push for a larger quota or better access to other countries’ zones. The 2025 Norway–Faroe deal addressed this by including mutual access provisions, allowing Faroese vessels to fish in Norwegian waters and vice versa for blue whiting.

Brexit added another layer of complexity. The UK, now outside the EU, became an independent participant in negotiations. This expanded the number of parties that needed to agree before any complete quota-sharing formula could be restored.

A Breakthrough on the Horizon

Despite years of disputes, 2025 showed early signs of change. And later that year, all coastal states reached a unified TAC for 2026—set at 533,914 tonnes, exactly the ICES-advised level. This was the first complete, all-party alignment on quotas since 2013, signalling a major diplomatic shift and a shared willingness to act on scientific advice.

Norway’s fisheries minister hailed the move, saying it reduced fishing pressure and raised hopes for a future agreement on how the catch should be shared between nations.

The Decade in Perspective

From 2015 to 2025, the Norwegian spring-spawning herring fishery reveals the consequences of weak international coordination. Quotas were often too high and catches too large. The stock declined. Certification was lost. Diplomatic tension dominated annual quota talks.

Yet the decade also shows that progress is possible. A strong year class in 2021 improved biological prospects, and by 2025–26, states began to take steps back toward cooperative management.

The herring’s recovery now depends on whether these countries can maintain joint responsibility for this migratory and shared resource. The scientific message has been consistent: without coordinated limits, the stock risks falling back below safe levels.

This article was written using materials from the following sources: fiskeridir.no, seafoodsource.com, thefishingdaily.com, undercurrentnews.com, reuters.com, europa.eu & ices-library.figshare.com