As the wrangle over mackerel quotas in the North Atlantic drags on, Scottish fishermen on Monday pledged to continue to protest any Faeroese pelagic fish landings in Scottish ports until the mackerel dispute has been settled.
Fishermen met in the port of Fraserburgh on Monday to hammer out the next step in their campaign. Organized by the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association (SPFA) with backing from the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF), the meeting is on the heels of bilateral talks over mackerel quotas between the European Union and the Faeroes on Friday.
Ian Gatt, CEO of the SPFA, said he was “encouraged” by the talks, which “seemed to be productive.”
“These initial encouraging signs now need to be turned into positive action by agreeing a sensible outcome during the October negotiation meeting,” said Gatt. “We believe the Faroese have already caught their unilaterally declared 85,000-metric-tons quota and may still even be fishing. What we must not do is reward the reckless, irresponsible behavior of Iceland and the Faeroes.”
Last month, fishermen in Peterhead, Scotland, blocked a Faeroese vessel from landing mackerel in the port. The fishermen argued that the Faeroes and Iceland, which aren’t EU members, increased their mackerel quotas to such an extent they are threatening the Scottish mackerel industry, valued at GBP 135 million.
The Faeroes set its 2010 mackerel quota at 85,000 metric tons, more than three times last year’s quota, and Iceland declared an autonomous quota of 130,000 metric tons. The Scottish mackerel quota, under the Common Fisheries Policy, is set at 130,000 metric tons.
“We have initiated a range of conservation measures to ensure the stock is in a healthy state, and all this hard work could be undone if a resolution is not reached,” said Bertie Armstrong, CEO of the SFF.
For years, the EU, Norway and the Faeroes have cooperated with a unified mackerel quota set and distributed between all three. Until recently, Iceland hardly fished for mackerel in its 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone. However, a considerable increase in the mackerel stock in northern waters, which some scientists attribute to climate change and rising ocean temperatures, led the Icelandic and Faroese governments to boost their mackerel quotas.
Following the return of a research vessel investigating fish distribution in Iceland’s EEZ, the country’s fisheries and agriculture ministry confirmed that mackerel “is in much greater abundance within the Icelandic EEZ when compared to data from a similar expedition in 2009.”
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