Coastal states agree pelagic TACs – but not quota shares

Difficult discussions on quota shares deferred to meetings at turn of year

Coastal states have agreed to follow ICES advice on TACs for North East Atlantic pelagic stocks for 2025, and to set them in line with the advice.

But there was no meaningful discussion of the controversial and apparently intractable issue of how the TACs should be shared out, as NGOs and the market had widely anticipated there would be.

The agreement was reached at a meeting held in the offices of the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) in London from 15 to 22 October.

The agreement gives a TAC for mackerel of 576,958t, for Atlanto-Scandian (AS) herring of 401,794t and for blue whiting of 1,447,054t. These represent a cut of 22% for mackerel, a cut of 5.4% for blue whiting and a small 3% increase for AS herring.

Ian Gatt, chief executive of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association (SPFA), said the objective the coastal states had set for the meetings was to agree on the TACs. A resolution of the arguments between the coastal states on how the quotas should be shared between them was ‘going to be for another day’.

Provisional quota shares were set in a way that did not preclude further discussions on the share-out, he said.

“There were a lot of expectations about quota shares at these talks, probably hyped up by the NGOs and maybe the market, but these meetings were deliberately set to agree the TACs and any relevant NEAFC measures that may flow from that,” said Ian Gatt.

“There was no discussion of shares, really – there was no time for it.”

Another barrier to any meaningful discussion of quota shares at the talks was that Iceland currently has no government. It collapsed on 13 October due to disputes over foreign policy, asylum seekers and energy. Elections for a new government are due to be held on 30 November.

“There were Icelandic officials at the meeting, but they have no mandate, so there was never going to be a meaningful discussion on shares at this meeting,” said Ian Gatt.

It was agreed at the meeting to reconvene quota-sharing discussions on AS herring and blue whiting early next year, probably in late January or early February. Mackerel talks focusing on quota shares will reconvene on 16 and 17 December.

“We would hope the new Icelandic government will be in place by the next meetings, and the Icelandic people coming down will have a mandate,” said the SPFA chief.

There is widespread misconception that coastal states talks on pelagic stocks are NEAFC talks, he said. Coastal states discussions are in fact independent of NEAFC, although they are held in the NEAFC offices in London.

But while agreements on TACs and quota shares are matters for the coastal states, NEAFC does have a regulatory role in the pelagic fisheries in the area under its jurisdiction. “There is a real confusion among the NGOs and the market about which bodies are doing what,” said Ian Gatt.

Coastal states multi-party pelagic talks involve the North East Atlantic coastal states (parties which have the stock in question in waters under their national jurisdiction) and fishing parties (parties whose national jurisdiction is adjacent to the NEAFC regulatory area, which are not coastal states, but whose vessels conduct fishing on that particular stock).

The coastal states and fishing parties in the North East Atlantic are the UK, EU, Norway, Iceland, Faroe, Greenland and Russia.

This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.50 here.

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