The EU increases Spain’s hake quota by 10% and cuts it to 4% for mackerel

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Fishing opportunities for hake grow for the first time in eight years, while mackerel plummet due to “the poor situation of the species”

Negotiations on the total allowable catches (TAC) for 2023 ended on Tuesday after a marathon of negotiations between European countries. “The debate has been long and complicated, but the result is satisfactory for the Spanish fleet,” summarized Spain’s Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Luis Planas. The news is particularly good for southern hake catches, with 9,953 tonnes, representing a 10% increase compared to 2022 catches and benefiting some 1,200 boats fishing in Cantabrian waters. Mackerel catches will also increase by 20% compared to last year, with 29,439 tonnes available. Mackerel, on the other hand, will be reduced to 3,271 tonnes, which in practice represents barely 4% of catches this year due to “bad stocks”.

Spain has achieved “an increase in catches of very important species” for the Spanish fleet, Planas stressed. In the case of southern hake, this is the first increase after eight years of reductions, due to the good conservation status of the species. Brussels already gave a signal in this regard in October by allowing Spanish vessels to fish 9,201 tonnes of hake until December, 84% more than originally planned.

During the negotiations, Spain also managed to minimize the cuts proposed by the European Commission on other species such as haddock and sole. For these two types, Brussels proposed a reduction of 10 and 11%. Finally, the Twenty-Seven agreed to maintain the haddock and sole quotas, while continuing the scientific campaigns related to the functional units of langoustines. As for the eel, an agreement has been reached for a six-month ban, which aims to restore the species.

The date of this Fisheries Council, which is earlier than usual, has made it difficult to reach a decision as negotiations with the United Kingdom and Norway are still open. The European Union shares fishing grounds with these two countries and a large number of fishing quotas depend on these agreements. However, Planas has hinted that, in the absence of final figures, negotiations with the UK government are going “very positively”. For example, it has been argued that Spain has for the first time obtained licenses to access British waters for bonito fishing, a 5% increase in northern hake quotas and also increases in anglerfish and Gran Sol cockerel of 11 and 14%, respectively. As for the western horse mackerel, it has been reached…

Contacts with Norway, on the other hand, remain difficult and Planas has expressed ‘his concern and disappointment’. Currently, provisional quotas have been approved, which will be renewed every quarter, to prevent this fleet from coming to a standstill.

The negotiations have been particularly complex because of the situation in the Mediterranean. The European Commission proposed to shorten the fishing days by about three weeks to improve the situation of the species. “In the end, we managed to get it down to between 9 and 10 days,” Planas stressed. It is on this point that Spain has expressed its disagreement with Brussels’ interpretation. “Maximum sustainable yield would be achieved using selective measures, not by reducing active days.”

Source: La Verdad

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