The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) is a multinational organization with a mandate to provide scientific advice and management of fisheries in the northwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean. NAFO is headquartered in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada.

History

In 1950, the fishing nations who operated fleets on the continental shelf of Canada and the United States began to recognize that fishing resources were finite and sought to establish an international multinational organization to provide for cooperation in preserving fish stocks. This organization, the International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, or ICNAF, was organized that year and mandated to use modern scientific methods in providing advice to member nations.

The ICNAF was supported by the "International Convention for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries", however between 1973-1982 the United Nations and its member states negotiated the "Third Convention of the Law of the Sea" - one component of which, the concept of nations being allowed to declare an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), was ratified and implemented in 1977. This extension of national fisheries jurisdiction over large areas of the continental shelf in this region by Canada, the United States, Greenland and St. Pierre and Miquelon required that the ICNAF be replaced with a new convention.

In 1979 the ICNAF was replaced by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) which was established under the "Convention on Future Multilateral Cooperation in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries". NAFO continues ICNAF's legacy under a mandate of providing scientific advice to member states with the premise of ensuring the conservation and management of fish stocks in the region.

NAFO implements quotas for various fish stocks and for member states and provides specifications on fishing gear design such as mesh size on fishing nets and trawls. These member states are expected to honour their quotas, however there have been innumerable accounts of violations. NAFO has been forced to provide impartial international fisheries observers on fishing vessels in the region, although this is on an infrequent basis, thereby leaving the reporting of fishing efforts to individual captains of vessels, their companies, and/or their national governments.

NAFO has come under increasing attack by the fishing industry in eastern Canada in recent decades as the effects of both domestic and foreign overfishing has decimated fish stocks throughout the region, resulting in financial ruin for numerous coastal communities. Anger in Eastern Canada, particularly Newfoundland and Labrador, at foreign violations of Canada's EEZ, as well as the flaunting of NAFO quota regulations and fishing gear specifications led to Canada exercising extra-territorial jurisdiction on a Spanish-flagged fishing trawler named Estai in 1995 during the so-called Turbot War.

Current member states

Year joined in brackets.

• Bulgaria (1979)
• Canada (1978)
• Cuba (1978)
• Denmark; in respect of Faroe Islands and Greenland (1979)
• European Union (1978)
• France; in respect of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (1996)
• Iceland (1978)
• Japan (1980)
• South Korea (1993)
• Norway (1978)
• Russia (1992)
• Ukraine (1999)
• United States of America (1995)

Former member states

• Estonia (1992-2004, acceded to the EU)
• Latvia (1992-2004, acceded to the EU)
• Lithuania (1992-2004, acceded to the EU)
• Poland (1979-2004, acceded to the EU)
• Romania (1979-2002)
• Portugal (1979-1986, acceded to the EU)
• Spain (1983-1986, acceded to the EU)
• East Germany (1978-1990, acceded to the EU following reunification of Germany)
• Soviet Union (1978-1991, succeeded by the Russian Federation)