News / Fishing talks under way in Bergen
POLITICIANS and fisheries leaders are meeting in the Norwegian city of Bergen this week for the annual EU/Norway negotiations over shared fish stocks.
While the controversial five-year deal over mackerel fishing rights in the north east Atlantic will undoubtedly feature during the talks, the main focus will be on next year’s quotas for cod and haddock.
Local fishermen hope for “reasonable” increases in quotas for both these stocks for 2015, but a final agreement is only expected following a second round of talks in Dublin, during the first week in December.
These are the last annual quota talks before the introduction of the discards ban in early 2016.
Simon Collins, of Shetland Fishermen’s Association, said negotiations were heading towards a rollover or a slight increase for cod, and a reasonable increase for haddock.
He said the 2015 deal was likely to be a “workable” one, but warned of far more complicated negotiations ahead in preparation for the discards ban that comes into force in 2016.
“It will be a workable deal under the regime we have at the moment as it recognises some of the things that we are saying, such as that the stocks are increasing much quicker than anybody had thought before.
“With an eye on what is going to happen under the discards deal regime, which is the year after that, none of the issues have been addressed yet, which is not ideal,” he said.
Meanwhile, with healthy mackerel stocks the Total Allowable Catch (TACs) for this important fishery is expected to be set only slightly below this year’s allocation of 1.2 million tonnes.
Collins emphasised that the principle of the deal struck between the EU, Norway and the Faroe Islands in March this year was not up for discussion during the current talks.
Local observers have been up in arms for weeks accusing Faroese and also Norwegian trawlers of fishing within Shetland’s 12-mile zone, which is prohibited under the deal.
A spokesman for Marine Scotland said on Tuesday morning that there was no evidence that foreign vessels have fished illegally in Shetland’s inshore waters over recent months.
He added that there was nothing wrong with these vessels seeking shelter in Shetland’s 12-mile zone.
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