Act on commercial fishing (No. 17 of 1990).

The Act aims to ensure appropriate and biologically sound exploitation of marine fishing. The government sets annual total allowable catch on certain species and its distribution in foreign fishing activities adheres to international agreements provisions. Commercial fishing in the Greenland fishing territory may only take place by vessels owned by individuals residing in the country for the past 2 years, or companies which at least 2/3 of its capital must be owned by individuals meeting the afore-mentioned conditions (in shrimp-fishing companies the entire share capital must be owned by these individuals). Greenlandic shrimp-, salmon- and foreign- fishing is subject to licensing divided into 4 types: 1) Limited with a maximum allowable catch. 2) Unlimited with a maximum allowable catch. 3) Temporary with a maximum allowable catch. And 4) Unlimited licence with maximum allowable catch. When individual yearly fishing quota has been reached, fishing must be suspended.
By implementing these regulations the government shall take into account available catch and appropriate geographic areas by distributing available catch according to areas and periods, allocating available catch as per pre-defined quota, considering maximum fishing period, number of landings and relative TAC, ensuring that catch registration and notification occur, suspending landing of specific fish species. National conservation regulations may be applied for the protection of fishing areas and fishing seasons, minimum required size of fishing species, size of fishing nets and maximum by-catch of specific fish species. Fishery for biological and experimental purposes may be carried out by the national Fisheries Research and national Environmental Research Institute. All catches may undergo on-board inspection by local authorities and military inspection may be implemented for the vessel’s pre-agreed observance of time and position for their fishing activities.