The dispute over quota shares of Atlanto-Scandian herring continues after the EU, Norway, Iceland and Russia failed to come to an agreement with the Faroese at talks in London yesterday.
The countries had hoped to make progress towards resolving the massive over-fishing of the stock by the Faroe Islands, following their move earlier this year to break out of the long-term management agreement for the stock and set a quota level more than three times larger than their traditional share (from 31,940 tonnes to 105,000 tonnes).
While an agreement was made at the talks to set up a scientific working group, this still has to be finalised by Iceland and Russia and will do little to sort out the problem in the short-term, said Ian Gatt, chief executive of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association (SPFA).
He told World Fishing and Aquaculture: “The working group will collate information on the distribution of all life stages of Atlanto-Scandian herring in the North East Atlantic and Barents Sea, and on distribution of catches from this stock. The information will shape the debate over allocation shares but it will take considerable time to complete this work, probably 12 months.”
Things took a turn for the worse when the Faroese refused to make an offer of a new, more realistic quota level. “Even more worrying was the fact that they gave no assurances that they would not set a high unilateral TAC next year,” added Mr Gatt.
This is despite the fact that European Union sanctions are now in force banning all imports of Faroese herring, mackerel and associated products caught in Atlanto-Scandian waters.
Back in June, the Marine Stewardship Council also suspended the Faroese Pelagic Organisation’s certificate for the stock.
Talks are due to continue in October.
