Iceland asks to join NEAFC talks

Iceland's Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture this week asked to participate in the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) talks in an effort to responsibly manage its mackerel fishery.
 
In a statement, the ministry emphasized the importance of well managed, sustainable fisheries and its obligation to cooperate with the NEAFC in compliance with the United Nation's Convention of the Law of the Sea.
 
Last week, the European Commission expressed "serious concern" about Iceland's decision in March to set its 2009 mackerel quota at 112,000 metric tons, about what it caught last year.
 
"In setting such an exaggerated level of quota, Iceland is acting in contradiction to its international obligations to cooperate on the conservation of this key resource in the North East Atlantic," said EC fisheries commissioner Joe Borg. "An Icelandic fishery of that dimension completely undermines the successful multilateral management of the stock by the EC, Norway and the Faeroe Islands since 1999."
 
Borg warned that Iceland's mackerel quota, which has "no scientific or historical justification," compromises the NEAFC's efforts to protect the mackerel stock over the past decade.
 
The NEAFC - which late last year set its 2009 mackerel quota at 605,000 metric tons, divided between the European Union, Norway and the Faeroe Islands - has accused Iceland of overfishing mackerel.
 
The ministry, which is not a member of the NEAFC, recently said Iceland has not broken any international agreements because it is not party to any.
 
"Iceland has been rejected by [NEAFC members], which have excluded Iceland from negotiations on the annual total allowable catch and its allocation," the ministry said in the statement. "Consequently, Iceland has been forced to object, in accordance with the NEAFC Convention, to the management measures for mackerel established within the NEAFC framework and have therefore not been bound by that agreement."
 
Iceland's 110,000-metric-ton mackerel catch in 2008 was up sharply from previous years due to an unexpectedly productive herring fishery, which harvest the mackerel as bycatch.