High North News

North Atlantic Mackerel Catch Advice More Than Doubles

Trine Jonassen
fisheries fish quotas

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) recommends a total mackerel catch of just under 352,000 tonnes next year. This is a 102% increase from last year, when the advice was just over 174,000 tonnes. The reason is that the mackerel spawning stock is now above the precautionary limit.

This is reported by RUV.

There has however been considerable disagreement over mackerel, which is one of the shared stocks in the North Atlantic claimed by several countries. In addition to Iceland, the coastal states fishing for mackerel are the Faroe Islands, Norway, the United Kingdom, Greenland and the European Union.

The states have struggled to agree on how the quota should be divided, and their combined catches are generally well above the scientific advice.

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