l Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has updated its fall 2013 advice on mackerel stocks and increased its recommendations for total allowable catches in the North East Atlantic.The updated advice on the basis of the Norway, Faroe Islands and EU management plan sets the catches for 2014 at between 927,000 metric tons (MT) and 1,011,000 MT.
While the recommendation is higher than the interim TAC set in October, it is still lower than the TAC agreed on by EU, Norway and Faroes in March.
In March, the EU, Norway and Faroes agreed on a TAC of 1.24 million MT for 2014, of which 1,046,560 MT is reserved for the three parties. Greenland has declared a catch limit of 100,000 MT and Iceland a catch limit of 147,721 MT. ICES said further significant catches can also be assumed to be taken by Russia.
ICES noted that both the agreed TAC and the sum of the declared catch limits exceed the advised fishing mortality.
