The European Union, Faroe Islands, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and the Russian Federation have reached an agreement on the management measures for mackerel, blue whiting, and Atlanto-Scandian herring for 2020.
All three stocks have a total allowable catch (TAC) set at the recommended scientific advice.
Regarding mackerel, the three coastal states parties to the sharing arrangement (E.U., Norway, and the Faroes) have agreed to set next year’s TAC at 922,064 metric tons (MT). This TAC is in line with the scientific advice received from the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and corresponds to the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) approach.
The new mackerel agreement represents a 41 percent increase compared to the TAC set in 2019.
Regarding blue whiting, Norway, the Faroes, Iceland, and the E.U. agreed to set the TAC for 2020 at 1,161,615 MT. Again, this TAC is in line with MSY and long-term management strategy approaches, and corresponds to an increase of approximately 2 percent compared to the TAC set for 2019.
For Atlanto-Scandian herring, Norway, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, the Russian Federation, and the E.U. agreed to set the 2020 TAC at 525,594 MT.
This quota is in line with the long-term management strategy adopted last year, which is more conservative than compared to the MSY approach. It corresponds to a decrease of approximately 11 percent compared to the TAC set for 2019.
Photo courtesy of Alessandro De Maddalena/Shutterstock
