‘The shame is theirs': Iceland, EU slam three-way mackerel deal

Intrafish News

Coastal States not party to this week’s trilateral agreement between the UK, Norway and the Faroe Islands say the deal will “legitimize” overfishing.

Norway, the United Kingdom and the Faroe Islands reached a trilateral agreement on Northeast Atlantic mackerel quotas this week. The other Coastal States are not happy.
Norway, the United Kingdom and the Faroe Islands reached a trilateral agreement on Northeast Atlantic mackerel quotas this week. The other Coastal States are not happy.Photo: Rune Kvamme

Pelagic fishing companies in the European Union and Iceland have issued stinging critiques of an agreement between three rival nations on the division of mackerel quotas in the Northeast Atlantic, saying the deal will “legitimize” overfishing.

Three separate industry associations accused the United Kingdom, Norway and the Faroe Islands of artificially inflating their quotas in a trilateral deal that gives the participants – just three of the six Coastal States with a claim on the stocks – a 72 percent share of the total allowable catch (TAC).

“The agreement between the three countries does little other than further cement an unacceptable overfishing of mackerel,” Fisheries Iceland CEO Heidrun Lind Marteinsdottir said in a statement.

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