Coveney calls for ‘realistic negotiation’ to counter mackerel overfishing

Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney has said he hopes proposed EU measures to limit over-fishing of North Atlantic mackerel stocks will force a realistic negotiation on the matter with Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

Mr Coveney made his comments after EU fisheries commissioner Maria Damanaki said she will decide by the end of the month the nature of sanctions against Iceland and the Faroe Islands in a row over mackerel quotas, which could see the island's fishermen banned from landing catches at EU ports.

Iceland's prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson was due to discuss the dispute with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso when they met in Brussels today.

Iceland says its increased quotas are justified as warming seas have led to more fish migrating northwards to its waters. Mr Gunnlaugsson has described possible sanctions by the EU against Iceland as “illegal”.

Calling for agreed quotas, Mr Coveney warned this morning of the dangers posed by over-fishing to the North Atlantic mackerel stock.

Mr Coveney said a claim that Iceland would be seeking a quota 15 per cent of available mackerel in the North Atlantic is not fair ,“and it is not fair ... that they are currently helping themselves to considerably more than 20 per cent.

"Back in 2006, Iceland was not catching any mackerel at all from this fishery. The Faroes have always had a small quota. This is a shared fishery between the European Union, Norway, the Faroes and Iceland now," he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland. "What we want is a shared management arrangement so that we can protect the stock to ensure that it is being fished sustainably."

Mr Coveney said a shared management arrangement - including an increase in quotas for Iceland and the Faroe Islands - should be agreed.

“But, unfortunately, what has happened here is that instead of negotiating a reasonable settlement they have simply cashed in by catching as much fish as they can catch.”

Mr Coveney said foreign trawlers have been brought in by the Faroese to catch the fish “because their own fleet couldn’t cope”.

He said Iceland and the Faroe Islands had decided to “help themselves” to as much mackerel as they can catch “by unilateraly setting their own quotas”. Mr Coveney said the stock, which is shared between several countries, was now being put at risk.

“They have simply refused to negotiate anykind of a reasonable settlement and so we have been forced to take tougher action,” he said.

“I have to act to protect my own fishing fleet in terms of their most valuable stock and I have to act to protect the stock itself from collapse.”

Mr Coveney said trade sanctions would limit the export of fish product from the Faroe Islands and from Iceland into the EU in response to what he described as their “reckless management and fishing of mackerel”.

Mr Coveney said he hoped “force a realistic negotiation so we can try and bring some kind of sense to what is a mackerel fishery that’s out of control at the moment.”

Otherwise, Mr Coveney said “everybody will lose because the stock will collapse and I cannot allow that to happen.”

He said the majority of member states and the council of ministers support that view.

Speaking following a meeting of EU fisheries ministers last night, Ms Damanaki said: ”We cannot permit unilateral actions that can destroy the stocks.

“We cannot wait until next year, we have to take action now. But about our concrete actions and what we’re going to do, more information will be provided by the end of this month,” she said.

As well as blocking Icelandic and Faroese fishermen from landing catches at EU ports, the sanctions would also be likely to include a ban on imports of mackerel and related fish products from both territories.

Any sanctions proposed by the Commission would have to be agreed by EU governments, and would likely get strong support from traditional mackerel-fishing nations such as Ireland and Britain.