The European Commission has called for all members of the Coastal States to take a conservationist approach on mackerel sharing
The European Commission has called for all members of the Northeast Atlantic Coastal States to take a conservationist approach and reach an agreement on mackerel sharing.
The call comes after the European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevicius wrote to the Norwegian Minister for Fisheries and Oceans, Bjørnar Skjæran, reportedly warning him that the EU is prepared to impose ‘measures’ against Norway if the coastal state decides not to enter a sharing arrangement and unilaterally sets its own quota as it has done for the past few years.
Norwegian news outlet NTB claimed the EU Commissioner ‘raged’ that Norway was undermining efforts by other coastal states to establish stable mackerel quotas. The Commissioner told the Norwegian Minister that his countries actions was in contravention of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Norway’s actions of unilaterally setting a mackerel quota have consequences for EU member states such as Ireland. As Norway seeks to increase its claim on mackerel, countries like Ireland find its fleet being punished for their gains.
Norway now claims that mackerel has changed its migration pattern and spends most of the year in the Norwegian zone, something which is disputed by Irish fishing organisations as for the past week or more, the Norwegian mackerel fleet has been fishing east of the Shetland Islands in the UK zone.
Mackerel has traditionally travelled through Irish, UK and northern waters in its migration pattern, spawning off the Ireland and Britain in the spring months before but they migrate through waters belonging to Norway, the Faroe Islands, recently Iceland, and sometimes Greenland, before returning south and east to spawn again. Throughout the annual migration cycle, they grow. A mackerel caught in Norwegian waters is bigger, fatter than those caught in the waters of the Faroe Islands or Iceland. Although the fish is bigger and fatter in Norwegian waters, the meat becomes better quality as it grows muscle swimming southward into the Shetland zone.
This has now become an area of conflict between the parties of the coastal states with Norway’s claim to the stock braking away from the convention of the coastal states.
The Fishing Daily contacted Commissioner Sinkevicius’ office to ask if the contents of the letter issued to the Norwegian Minister was available and what are the measures the EU will seek to implement and if those measures are ready for implementation.
Replying to our questions, a Commission spokesperson said:
“All the parties to the 2014 mackerel sharing arrangement shared a common understanding on their relative shares. After 2020, Norway decided to not follow that arrangement by increasing unilaterally and unjustifiably their quota (by 55% in 2021 and 2022).
“The scientific advice (ICES advice) for mackerel has been on a downwards trend since 2020. The scientific advice is the basis for the total allowable catches (TAC) that we set annually, jointly with other coastal states including Norway. While all coastal States jointly agree on the TAC, the lack of a comprehensive agreement on a sharing arrangement coupled with the fact that some parties have not taken a conservationist approach, but rather inflated their quota shares, has resulted in total catches exceeding the levels that allow the sustainable management of mackerel in line with the scientific advice. These various unilateral decisions have added, and are still adding, pressure on the mackerel stock and further jeopardized its status.”
