Disagreements of European Union, United Kingdom, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Russia, Iceland and Norway regarding the international mackerel quota regulations

Fiskebåt Open Letter to the NE Atlantic Mackerel Community. Let’s leave the battlefield and ensure a healthy mackerel stock – together! The European Union, United Kingdom, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Russia, Iceland and Norway have our disagreements regarding the international mackerel quota regulations, and we might not prefer all the terms in an agreement. However, the time has come to settle. The mackerel stock is not managed sustainably in the North-East Atlantic, despite the knowledge and intentions to the contrary. The lack of agreement has led to a substantial overfishing over the last decade. Based on the total allowable catch (TAC) from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) the overfished percentage has been 31,8 % per year in average during the period from 2006 until 2020. There have always been major challenges in managing border-crossing stocks, as they change their migration patterns. Whether global warming, stock size or feeding is the ...