With the 2018 almost upon us and people turning their thoughts towards healthy eating New year’s resolutions, Scottish fishermen and processors say now is the perfect time for consumers to put nutritious mackerel and herring onto their weekly menus.
The Shetland Fishermen’s Association has hit out at the deal struck at this week’s December Council, stating that while there are some positive outcomes for whitefish, the same does not apply to the pelagic sector.
An agreement on the mackerel fishery for 2018 was reached earlier this month in London between the European Union, Norway and Faroe Islands.
Norwegian vessel operators’ federation Fiskebåt has levelled some sharp criticism at the ICES decision to recommend a 35% cut the mackerel fishery, reducing it to 560,000 tonnes.
Síldarvinnslan’s fleet has finished its mackerel fishery this year, ending the season with two of the pelagic vessels trying to catch mackerel with purse seine gear in the Herring Loophole.
Icelandic pelagic vessel Börkur has landed purse seine-caught mackerel for the first time, with 630 tonnes of mackerel caught in international waters 280 nautical miles offshore, and close to the Faroese line.
Norwegian fishing vessel operators’ federation Fiskebåt has written to the authorities, asking for restrictions to be placed on Icelandic and Greenlandic vessels landing mackerel in Norwegian ports.
Greenlandic pelagic catcher Polar Amaroq had given up on mackerel and was on its way north of the Dohrn Bank to search for herring, and dropped into a mackerel hotspot.
The Faroese Ministry of Fisheries is preparing a series of quota auctions that start this week, with herring, blue whiting and mackerel quotas offered for sale to the highest bidder, as well as groundfish quotas in both Russian and Norwegian zones of the Barents Sea.
After landing 450 tonnes of top-quality mackerel caught around the Westmann Islands, skipper Jón Axelsson said that the next stop is Greenland.