European negotiations on sharing Northeast Atlantic pelagic stocks are expected to resume later in September, and in advance of the talks, the E.U. fishing industry has renewed its calls for coastal states to prioritize a mackerel agreement that aligns with scientific advice and encompasses all parties.
The upcoming negotiations follow the hard deadline of 31 March, 2023, to reach an agreement on sharing Northeast Atlantic mackerel stock – set by the six coastal states of Norway, the European Union, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom – which passed with no tangible outcome.
After that deadline, several events transpired that could complicate further negotiations. One is that Norway struck a bilateral agreement with the U.K. to share mackerel quota, a deal which the Irish Fish Producers Organisation (IFPO) said “ignores key aspects of [previous] discussions on the sharing of mackerel stock” and includes “irresponsible quota allocation consistent with IUU [illegal, unreported, and unregulated] fishing practices.”
The Norway-U.K. agreement grants Norway access to U.K. waters to fish up to 60 percent of its total allowable catch (TAC) on the condition that Norway reduces its unilateral TAC and pays in quota for access. Norway agreed to reduce its TAC to 31.95 percent from 35 percent and transfer 24,635 metric tons (MT) of mackerel to the United Kingdom.
The IFPO claims Norway has inflated its mackerel stock data and “trades some of this inflated quota with other countries so they can dramatically increase their catch in other parties’ waters.”
Norwegian representatives have repeatedly pushed back on such claims, but nonetheless, the Northern pelagic Working Group of the European Association of Fish Producers Organisations (EAPO) and the Association of National Organisations of Fishing Enterprises in the E.U. (Europêche) said in a joint statement that the deal doesn’t contribute to a “conducive environment” for the upcoming talks.
Northern Pelagic Working Group Chair and Europêche Vice President Tim Heddema said that to ensure truly sustainable management of Northeast Atlantic mackerel, a full-fledged sharing arrangement is necessary between as many parties as possible. As such, the bilateral U.K.-Norway agreement cannot replace an effective coastal states agreement nor should the agreement incorporate the U.K.-Norway deal into its framing, he said.
“The parties have all shown themselves capable of reaching bilateral, trilateral, and multilateral deals, albeit to differing degrees of satisfaction. With the right atmosphere, this should again be possible when mackerel discussions resume in September and October,” Heddema said.
Previous agreements include the deal coastal states signed in December 2022 on a total Northeast Atlantic mackerel quota of 782,066 MT for 2023. This aligned with advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and resulted in a 1.6 percent decrease from the 2022 catch advice of 794,920 MT. However, the region’s 2022 TACs amounted to more than 1.31 million MT, showcasing the stark divide between guidance and what’s put into practice.
Further complicating upcoming negotiations, EAPO and Europêche claim Norway and the Faroe Islands have inflated their initial quotas by around 55 percent compared to levels spelled out in the most recent coastal states mackerel sharing arrangement. The two groups also state that in order for the Faroes to catch its unilateral quota, its fleet has been fishing for mackerel on summer feeding grounds, when the fish are in poor condition after their spawning migration.
EAPO and Europêche estimate that up to two-thirds of the total Faroese mackerel catch eventually became fishmeal and fish oil, deeming this process a wasteful practice that will have “long-lasting and damaging effect[s]” on mackerel stock.
Furthermore, Norway – where much of this fish was landed with permission of the Faroese government between 26 July and 31 August – helped to facilitate this practice, according to EAPO and Europêche.
Heddema said the unilaterally set Northeast Atlantic mackerel quotas by Norway and the Faroe Islands remain unacceptable and harm the efforts to pursue an all-inclusive agreement.
To ensure an effective coastal states agreement, EAPO and Europêche want the European Commission and E.U. Council to take concrete action against unilaterally set quotas. They also want the governmental bodies to make use of instruments at their disposal, such as trade measures, to develop a plan that benefits all parties.
Advising that the E.U. has stuck to the agreed-upon shares laid out in 2014 but that responsible companies in the E.U. are at risk of losing their business “for doing the right thing,” Heddema said EAPO and Europêche are, therefore, repeating their “urgent call” for an immediate E.U. response to stop Norway and the Faroes continuing “their unsustainable and irresponsible behavior” and to prevent the further overfishing of incredibly valuable stock.
Heddema told SeafoodSource that a “difficult cocktail of factors” has emboldened Norway, the U.K., and the Faroes, among other players, to seek their own deals and play by their own rules, which also helps to explain the coastal states’ failure so far to reach a consensus on mackerel sharing arrangements.
“It is striking how the parties primarily responsible for the now traditional overshoot are not in the slightest bit challenged domestically nor internationally by civil society, scientists, or politicians. This, in turn, means that they are in a comfortable position. They may feel they are better off maintaining the current situation than to enter into a new, all-party agreement,” Heddema said. “Another thing is that after years of relations souring, not in the last place between the Nordic countries, there seems to be a distinct lack of diplomacy in these talks. There is an urgent need for parties to start rebuilding trust, personal relations, and informal contacts, on all levels. Involvement of the higher political levels is also much needed.”
Heddema emphasized how “one of the main issues right now is that following Brexit, some coastal states have developed a taste for trying to take away share from the E.U., for which they misuse the criterion of zonal attachment.”
The zonal attachment concept is “seriously flawed” and “permanently unfit” for drawing conclusions on Northeast Atlantic stocks by a particular coastal state’s scientific working group, as the data set required will never be complete across areas, life stages, seasons, and other criteria, according to Heddema.
On an optimistic note, Heddema said market pressure and statements from other stakeholders, including sourcing declarations, have to some extent helped raise public awareness of the importance of better managing concerned stocks, and confirmed the E.U. industry has been actively engaging with these stakeholders.
“On balance, the statements have not been embraced to the fullest, especially because all parties were unfairly blamed in equal measure for the current overfishing. Also, proposed solutions like majority voting are not workable nor desirable in the coastal states’ context,” Heddema said. “Instead, more concrete pressure is needed from the parties that have restrained themselves in fishing over the years, for example, by considering select trade measures … Now is the time for those worried by the overfishing in their own coastal states to make themselves heard domestically.”
Photo courtesy of Pelagic Freezer Trawler Association
