Holly mackerel - healthy fish stocks...

Norwegian coast guard watching over the mackerel

It's early autumn and the annual mackerel swarms are travelling from the north east Atlantic along the Norwegian Trench into the central North Sea over winter. There's a whole range of whale species following the countless mackerel, feeding on them to thicken their warming blubber layer for the cold winter times. At this time the Scandinavian mackerel fleet catch within their alloted three weeks the best part of their annual landings.

We come across the mackerel fleet east of our Viking Bank Marine Reserve and observe this Scandinavian "fishing frenzy". Altogether 26 fishing vessels from Denmark, Sweden and Norway are counted. All of them are using the purse seining fishing method to catch as much as they can in the shortest possible period of time.

Among the fleet is a coast guard vessel with fisheries inspectors to enforce the restrictive fishing rules set up by the Norwegian government. The rules state that every fishing vessel gets a certain quota, is not allowed to discard any by-catch and must allow fisheries inspectors on board at any time of the fishing operation.

This mackerel stock is in a comparably good condition and since the fishing occurs in mid water within dense swarms, there is hardly any recorded by-catch. In the German Greenpeace consumer guide, mackerel can be found in the "acceptable to eat" category for the following reasons: the fishing method is ok, the stock of the target species is in a good state and the fisheries management is strict and reliable.

- Thilo

Posted by Elaine

good

Posted by: alex at September 15, 2004 11:15 PM

Good news. Nice, for a change. :)

Posted by: gbreez at September 23, 2004 03:08 AM