Norway and the United Kingdom reached an agreement Thursday on northeast Atlantic mackerel quotas for 2023, amounting to 58.91 percent of the total, which is set at 782,066 metric tons this year for all coastal states.
The agreement was struck without the involvement of the other coastal states.
Norway's share of the total quota is 31.95 percent or 249,870 metric tons. However, there is an agreement to transfer 24,635 metric tons from Norway to the UK, in exchange for Norwegian access to fishing in the British zone .
Mackerel is an economically important stock for Norway and ranks second after cod. After quota swaps and transfers from last year, this year's Norwegian mackerel quota ends up at 245,688 metric tons. Norway is allowed to fish 135,141 metric tons of mackerel in the British zone this year.
The UK quota will be 210,814 metric tons, which is 26.96 percent of the total quota, according to the agreement.
"Great Britain and Norway are the two largest mackerel nations, and this agreement is therefore an important step towards even better management of the mackerel stock and reduced fishing pressure," said Norway's Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bjornar Skjaeran.
"It would, of course, have been nice if we had reached an agreement that included the other coastal states as well, and I hope that the example that Norway and Great Britain are now setting will contribute to the other coastal states eventually following suit," he said.
You can read the full agreement here.
The mackerel negotiations started in London in mid-October.
In December, the coastal states managed to reach an agreement on the total quota for 2023, but not how it should be distributed.
The parties had until March 31 to reach an agreement. Only Norway and Great Britain have managed to reach an agreement for 2023.
The coastal states that negotiate for mackerel quota are Norway, Iceland, the EU, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and the UK. Russia is an observer.
Negotiations on a new overall quota for 2024 will start again in the fall.
