The fishery is comprised of an inshore and offshore fleet with a total of 21 smaller vessels and 7 factory vessels. The fishery uses otter board trawls to target prawns year round. The total allowable catch is 2012 was 105 metric tons (MT), of which 97.7 MT were allocated to the Greenland fleet. The remainder of the TAC is divided between the EU and Canada. For 2013, the TAC is 90 MT, of which 83.8 MT are allocated to the Greenland fishery.
Raw shell-on prawns are mainly sold to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and cooked shell-on prawns are mainly marketed to Scandinavia and Russia. The cooked and peeled prawns have strong markets in the U.K. and EU.
“We’re delighted to announce the first MSC certification of a Greenland fishery. This achievement was accomplished as a result of the tremendous effort and collaboration between fisheries stakeholders in Greenland,” said Gisli Gislason, MSC Northern region senior fisheries outreach manager. “Half of the value of exports from Greenland can be ascribed to the prawn fisheries, and this fishery is therefore of crucial importance both economically and culturally. I’d like to congratulate and thank all stakeholders that have been involved in this process; “MSC looks forward to continuous work with Greenland in the years to come.”
