On Friday 5 December, the European Union reached an agreement with Norway and the United Kingdom on the management of shared fish stocks in the North Sea for 2026.
The agreement guarantees 343,000 tonnes of cod, haddock, saithe, whiting, plaice and herring for the European fleet, worth €609 million, according to the European Commission.
The tables show the following volumes for the EU: - cod: 3,984 tonnes (t); - haddock: 11,256 t. - saithe: 19,199 t. - whiting: 37,956 t. - plaice: 96,206 t (66% for the EU); - herring: 174,140 t (53% of total for the EU).
This year, the EU, Norway and the UK agreed on a new approach to the management of North Sea herring, including a long-term management strategy and a set of measures to ensure the sustainability of herring fisheries in the North Sea and Skagerrak-Kattegat.
Within this framework, the EU has obtained an additional 10 years’ access to British waters for the Skagerrak herring fleets. This agreement, combined with the forthcoming area-based measures (areas closed to fishing), will help to rebuild the depleted Western Baltic herring stock.
The agreement also includes measures to support the recovery of the Northern Shelf cod stock, such as new seasonal closures, extensions to existing closures and increased real-time closures.
All Total Allowable Catches (TACs) have been set in line with Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY), which is the maximum amount of fish that can be taken from the sea without damaging the stock’s ability to regenerate.
The EU, Norway and the UK have also agreed to continue their cooperation on monitoring, control and surveillance, to develop best practices and to strengthen compliance in order to ensure a level playing field. The agreed catch limits will be incorporated into the regulation on fishing opportunities for 2026, which will be negotiated by EU fisheries ministers on 11 and 12 December.
Link to the agreement in question: https://aeur.eu/f/jw1 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)