Mackerel Negotiations ended without an agreement
Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson Iceland´s Minister of Fisheries has expressed great dissapointment that negotiations on mackerel between the Coastal States in Bergen this week have not resulted in an agreement between the parties. These negotiations were suspended but the parties agreed to continue consultations.
The Minister said “ We had every reason to believe that the Coastal States had this time an ideal opportunity to reach an agreement, particularly in view of the last advice on TAC for mackerel by ICES. This advice provides for 64% greater catch than the advice for 2013. This increase, however, was not considerd sufficient enough by some Coastal States.”
The Minister added that Iceland has in recent months made considerable concessions aimed to contribute to a solution and said: “ We had reached a common understanding with the EU on how to come to a solution and I deeply regret that this was not supported by all the parties. This would have secured a sustainable utilization of the mackerel stock in the years to come.”
Finally, Iceland continues to seek an agreement based on scientific advice and the Minister hopes that the Coastal States have not exhausted their possibilities to do so, hopefully in the coming days.