Nations that fish for Northeast Atlantic mackerel are preparing for negotiations to establish a comprehensive sharing agreement – a goal that has proved futile for over a decade but carries extra weight this year as scientific advice has suggested massive quota cuts.
At these types of meetings, coastal nations have traditionally agreed on a total catch figure for the upcoming year based on advice from scientific bodies like the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) but have disagreed on how to split up quotas.
This year’s negotiations, starting 16 October in London, U.K., come just a few weeks after ICES recommended 70 percent year-over-year cuts to Northeast Atlantic mackerel catch. With this large of a recommended cut, representatives from several nations have signaled they will advocate for breaking from scientific advice in attempting to establish a total catch figure for 2026.
In a press release, Norwegian fishers’ representative organization Fiskebåt called for a minimum quota of around 306,702 metric tons (MT), which would be far higher than ICES' advice of around 174,000 MT.
"It is in everyone's interest to rebuild the mackerel stock, but at the same time, it is important that the industry and the market are not damaged in the rebuilding process. Fiskebåt believes there is a scientific basis for deviating from the quota advice issued by ICES," Fiskebåt CEO Audun Maråk said.
Are Salthaug, a scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Marine Research, said that ICES first suggested a figure close to Fiskebåt’s suggestion, but the advice was adjusted downward when new information about the spawning stock was available.
"The spawning stock is below the critical level at which production is, by definition, reduced. Therefore, ICES considers it logical to use a conservative estimate of future recruitment," Salhaug told Norwegian media outlet Fiskeribladet.
Nevertheless, Maråk's calls for a higher quota than ICES’ recommended advice were echoed by other fisher representative groups such as the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, the CEO of which, Elspeth Macdonald, called the advice “over-precautionary.”
"Managers must take into consideration all three pillars of sustainability into consideration – the environmental but also the social and socioeconomic implications of management decisions," she said in early October.
Páll Holm Johannesen, the director of the Faroese Pelagic Organization, similarly stated that the fishing industries from coastal nations would pressure their delegates not to follow the advice.
Norway, the U.K., and the Faroe Islands have had a sharing agreement for mackerel since 2024, while other coastal nations fishing for mackerel, such as the E.U., Iceland, Greenland, and Russia, were not included in the agreement.
The E.U. has vehemently opposed the way Norway in particular has approached quota-setting in the Northeast Atlantic, accusing the nation of doing nothing to stop overfishing for years and, therefore, being to blame for the Northeast Atlantic mackerel fishery losing its Marine Stewardship Council certification in 2019.
The E.U. has emphasized that scientific advice should continue to be followed, regardless of the precipitous drop in ICES advice, and warned that another year with no established comprehensive sharing agreement could have devastating consequences for years beyond 2026.
"If overfishing does not stop now, in other words if a comprehensive sharing arrangement among all parties does not materialize in the rounds of consultations over the next few weeks, the scientific recommendation for this stock for 2027 would almost certainly be zero, with tragic repercussions on those whose lives depend upon the mackerel fishery," a spokesperson for the E.U. Commission told SeafoodSource. "The Commission is very concerned with the lack of progress in that regard and is concerned with the prospect of continued overfishing and arrangements based on quotas inflated unilaterally by some parties. This year's scientific advice confirms the critical status of the stock. There is an urgent need to bring fishing mortality down to the catch limit advised by ICES, a need strongly reiterated by the E.U. for years."
Norway, for its part, has said that the E.U. hasn't reduced its shares of pelagic quota enough since Brexit, when the bloc lost a vast part of its fishing grounds. Norway, as well as the U.K., have said the focus for stock sharing should be on "zonal attachment," meaning that the nations where most fish reside for the longest time should get a higher quota.
Possibly serving as a harbinger for the upcoming mackerel talks, the disagreement between the two sides boiled over at this year’s negotiations for blue whiting, when Norwegian officials accused the E.U. of sabotaging the talks.
“The E.U.'s frivolous and unsubstantiated proposal for a share agreement of blue whiting is a step back in reaching an agreement, not only for blue whiting but also for mackerel and Norwegian spring-spawning herring. It [will also] have consequences for future fisheries cooperation between Norway and the E.U.," Maråk said at the time.
