North Atlantic mackerel dispute drags on as deals expire

Representatives from the EU, Norway, the UK, Iceland and the Faroe Islands met on September 16 to try to unblock the long-running mackerel dispute over Northeast Atlantic quotas, three weeks before fishery improvement projects covering mackerel, blue whiting and herring lapse on October 5.

The meeting, reported by Undercurrent News, focused on stock assessment data and management strategy rather than new figures. No quota numbers were released, and no five-way sharing agreement followed.

"The creation of this group increases collaboration among the key pelagic industry stakeholders in these fisheries," said Ian Gatt, chief executive of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen's Association, one of the industry bodies pushing governments toward a resolution.

A dispute that started in 2010 still has no five-way deal, only bigger catches and a shrinking window to fix it.

A mackerel dispute older than this season

The Northeast Atlantic mackerel stock has gone without a five-way sharing agreement since 2010, when the EU, Norway and the Faroe Islands split the bulk of the quota. For 2026, the UK, Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands instead struck their own bilateral deals, setting a combined catch of roughly 299,000 tonnes, some 100,000 tonnes above the science-based advice from ICES, the body that sets recommended limits. The EU, left out of that arrangement, kept its own smaller catch limit and formally objected to the other parties' numbers.

Blue whiting adds a separate complication: it lost its Marine Stewardship Council certification in 2020, yet its fishery improvement project has continued to let the species into farmed salmon feed, an arrangement industry groups want resolved before the current FIPs lapse. Norway remains the largest single beneficiary of the mackerel split, and its salmon export volumes hit a record in August, adding to the stakes around how blue whiting is sourced for feed.

Three weeks to the deadline

Without a deal, the three fishery improvement projects tracking mackerel, blue whiting and herring end on October 5, leaving buyers who cite FIP status to justify sourcing decisions without that cover. The pelagic industry group plans to meet again in October, after the deadline has already passed, with governments still expected to negotiate shares into next year's season.

Not every quota story ends in deadlock: this month's Pacific bluefin tuna quota increase for 2027-28 shows international bodies can still agree when a stock recovers. For a mackerel dispute already running above scientific advice, another year without a five-way deal keeps that kind of agreement further out of reach than the fish themselves.