Mediterranean fishing quotas 2027 keep the trawler limits

The European Commission adopted its proposal on Mediterranean fishing quotas 2027 on 16 September, and it changes almost nothing: the limits on trawlers and longliners in the western Mediterranean roll over into a third year.

The western Mediterranean is not governed by tonnage the way the North Sea is. Its demersal stocks, the fish and shellfish that live on or near the bottom, are managed by days at sea. Boats are told how long they may fish, not how much they may land, and the plan that sets those days entered its permanent phase on 1 January 2025 after a five-year transition that cut effort by up to 40 per cent.

What the Mediterranean fishing quotas 2027 proposal keeps

Boats are told how long they may fish, not how much they may land.

The Commission proposes to maintain that effort regime, the catch limits on deep-water shrimps, and the compensation mechanism that lets trawlers buy back days by adopting selective gear or staying out of nursery areas. In the Adriatic, the proposal carries over the plans agreed at the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean for demersal and small pelagic stocks.

In the Black Sea, the sprat catch limit is held at its 2026 level and the turbot quota follows the GFCM management plan, which is the one stock in the basin where quotas are shared with non-EU fleets.

The numbers that are still missing

The proposal is deliberately incomplete. Figures for several Mediterranean stocks, including blackspot seabream, wait on the GFCM annual session from 24 to 30 October and on scientific advice from the Commission's STECF committee, expected the same month.

That leaves fishing ministers roughly six weeks to read the science before they meet on 14 and 15 December, the sitting at which these files are traditionally settled overnight and with the fleet lobbying in the corridor.

For kitchens, the practical reading is that red mullet, hake, prawns and langoustine from the western basin stay on the same supply footing next year, with the same scarcity built in. It is a slower story than a saury price tripling in one season, and closer to the Norwegian mackerel cut, where the rule changed first and the menu followed.

The regulation, once agreed, applies from 1 January 2027.