It is no denying fact that overfishing by Icelandic and Faroese fishing boats in the Northeast Atlantic continues and make the situation worst. The certification body has warned that if it is not tackled strictly then all Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified mackerel fisheries will lose their accreditation by January 2012.
Scottish fishermen have raised their voice for the status of their MSC-certified mackerel fishery after the recent unilateral decision by Iceland and the Faroe Islands to set large quotas of 130,000t and 85,000t respectively for 2010. Because mackerel is a migrating stock – attracted to the warmer northern waters off countries such as Iceland – over-fishing to the north affects stocks in EU waters, and Scottish fishermen fear unfair penalisation for ‘mis-managing’ fisheries if mackerel disappear.
The Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association (SPFA) promotes the interests of Scottish fisherman generally and 25 individual vessels that fish mackerel. Chief executive Ian Gatt said that it is only a matter of time before numbers fall in our mackerel fisheries and we lose MSC accreditation for supposedly not looking after stocks. he said that given lower limits and higher limits for mackerel stocks, then current levels are well above the upper limit, meaning that we can safely maintain current fishing levels for a year and a bit.
Stevenson is representing the EU Parliament at a mackerel summit next week in Torshavn, The Faroe Islands, which will attempt to resolve the dispute. He is urging blockades against Icelandic and Faroese vessel and bans on mackerel imports from the two countries; he also believes that the EU Commission should put more pressure on Iceland given current EU accession talks.
