November 19 2025 — The latest meeting of the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) resulted in no agreement on a sharing arrangement for blue whiting and opposition to a total allowable catch (TAC) for mackerel in line with scientific advice, leaving both fisheries facing overfishing for another year.
The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) latest scientific advice for Northeast Atlantic pelagic species recommended big cuts to quotas for multiple fisheries, including a 41 percent decrease in the blue whiting catch and an even steeper 70 percent decrease to the mackerel catch – taking that stock from 576,968 metric tons (MT) to just 174,357 MT. That advice comes after years of overfishing of both species, caused by continuous disagreements between the member states of Norway, the E.U., the U.K., Iceland, Denmark with respect to the Faroe Islands and Greenland, and Russia – who have in the past repeatedly agreed to follow the ICES advice, but inevitably blown past the TAC after disagreeing over who should take what share of the catch.