Abide by the claw: snow crab ruling boosts claim to oil

Oslo – A court delivered a painful nip to European Union (EU) fishermen this week by tightening Norway’s grip on snow crab catches in the Arctic, a ruling that may also let Oslo claw more control of oil and gas from other nations.

Fishermen from the EU must ask permission from Oslo to catch snow crab, whose meat is a delicacy, in waters north of Norway, the Norwegian Supreme Court said in a unanimous ruling.

The court dismissed an appeal by a Latvian fishing firm against fines imposed by a lower court for catching snow crab around the remote Svalbard islands in 2017 with only an EU licence.

Had Norway lost the case, the EU could have staked a claim over the snow crab and it could have been harder for Oslo to regulate access to potential oil and gas resources beneath the Arctic seabed.