Fishers Face Mackerel Drop – Fishupdate.com

Fishers Face Mackerel Drop Fishing Monthly Published:  27 November, 2002

FISHERMEN are facing a drop of about 15% in next year’s mackerel TAC.

Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association secretary Derek Duthie said the reference TAC had been agreed for 2003 although the allocation between Norway and the EU was not agreed yet.

However, he expected this to be on the same basis as before.

Meanwhile,there was no agreement on the Atlanto Scandian herring TAC because Norway was trying to win a bigger share.

The mackerel TAC was going down from 586,500 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes but that figure included the North Sea as well as the Western component.

The UK share came from the Western component and until they knew the split in the figure they could not be certain on figures, although the UK drop for next year could be in the region of 30,000 tonnes. This year’s UK share was 202,000 tonnes.

The third round of the annual EU-Norway talks will run alongside the December EU fisheries council.