The agreed record of fisheries consultations signed by the four countries also emphasized that the decision had been taken after recognizing the importance of quickly and provisionally implementing a set of responsible management measures as an immediate response to the declining state of the stock.<\/p>\n
Moreover, it added that, while discussions to agree on quotas for all coastal states continued in parallel, such measures would bring significant benefits to the long-term condition of the stock.<\/p>\n
Likewise, Norway, the UK, Iceland and the Faroe Islands decided to send a request to the International Council for Exploration of the Seas<\/a> (ICES) to evaluate the draft long-term fisheries management<\/a> strategy, underlining their desire to see it in operation in time for the autumn 2026 consultations for setting the 2027 TAC for the stock.<\/p>\n Thus, the signatory states emphasized that the agreement represents a significant reduction in overfishing<\/a> and constitutes an important step toward responsible and sustainable management of the mackerel stock.<\/p>\n The Faroe Islands release even states that the quota of 299,010 tons has been set “in accordance with ICES’ Fmsy principle,” the scientific guideline for managing fisheries in the long term, aiming to achieve a balance between high catches and the health of stocks.<\/p>\n The statement is striking because, in October, ICES advised<\/a> catches of mackerel should be reduced by 77% compared to the previous year if the species is to recover, meaning a total catch limit of no more than 174,357 tonnes, a reduction well above that now agreed by these four countries.<\/p>\n As reported by WeAreAquaculture, in November, the European Union expressed strong concern<\/a> after most members of the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) rejected its call to set mackerel catch limits in line with scientific advice.<\/p>\n According to the EU, the decision risked worsening the condition of one of the region’s most valuable fish stocks<\/a>, which the ICES had already assessed as being below minimum sustainability levels.<\/p>\n Previously, the North Atlantic Pelagic Advocacy Group<\/a> (NAPA), which represents more than 50 retailers, suppliers and food service companies, had raised alarm in October following ICES data showing that northeast Atlantic mackerel has fallen to its lowest stock level in more than two decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n As the voice of the marketplace, NAPA has been calling for action to address this issue for five years and is currently leading a Fishery Improvement Project (FIP) aimed at encouraging coastal states to reach a long-term sharing arrangement.<\/p>\n Mackerel continues to be a very valuable fishery for the NEAFC states. In the UK, for example, it was the second most valuable seafood export after salmon in 2024<\/a>, and also the species with the second highest volume of exports, while in Norway it plays a similar role in the country’s seafood exports, even overtaking salmon<\/a> in terms of export value in September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The agreed record of fisheries consultations signed by the four countries also emphasized that the decision had been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7076,74231,327,43,74232,8760,57,2735,74234,74228,74233,74236,157,74229,74230,12196,74235,950,771,9317,294],"class_list":["post-158508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-faroe-islands","tag-agreement","tag-coastal-states","tag-eu","tag-faroe-islands","tag-fisheries","tag-fishing","tag-greenland","tag-iceland","tag-ices","tag-mackerel","tag-mackerel-stock","tag-napa","tag-norway","tag-quota","tag-quotas","tag-reduction","tag-scientific","tag-stock","tag-stocks","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117206821642993142","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}