Supply of Pelagic Consumption Species Will Drop in 2023

However, species where the main utilization is for fishmeal and fishoil is thought to increase.

From quota advice for main pelagic species in the North Atlantic, to quote recommendations for mackerel and blue whiting, what is the latest in the world of Pelagic species?

The quota advice for main pelagic species in the North Atlantic is released and again we saw a decrease in the advice for NSS herring. Recommended TAC for 2023 is 511 171 tons which is a 15% decrease compared to the quota advice last year. As the coastal states did not agree on the division of the quota in 2022, the sum of the decided quotas from each fishing nations ended around 830 000 tons. The autumn season fishery has started, and we estimate that the fishing nations will manage to catch their quotas before the end of the year.

For mackerel, ICES recommends a quota of 782 066 tons for 2023. This is a decrease of 2 per cent compared to the quota advice for 2022. Also, here the sum of the unilateral quotas exceeded ICES advice in 2022 and ended at around 1,1 million tons. Despite substantial higher catches than recommended the mackerel stock seems to be in a good condition.

As for Blue whiting the advice is increasing by 81% to 1,36 million tons in 2023. The Blue Whiting stock is considered healthy with good recruitment even if landings has been higher than recommended TAC the past years.

For horse mackerel the recommendation is zero quota in 2023.

The overall impression is that the supply of pelagic consumption species will drop in 2023 while species where the main utilization is for fishmeal and fishoil will increase.

As we know from earlier the final quotas will most likely differ from the advice to a greater or lesser degree, but most likely catches will be higher as there are disagreements between the coastal states regarding the size and division of the mackerel and herring quotas. And then we have the Icelandic capelin where the final cruises are completed in January next year, but we know already that the researchers have warned that the 869 000 tons quota set last season will be strongly reduced. This will affect Iceland, Norway, and Greenland as they have fixed shares of this quota.

This is an extraction from the Monthly Pelagic report. Want more news like this? Make sure to subscribe to the report.