MEP MARIA WALSH has warned that a proposal to cut the EU’s mackerel quota by 70% would “threaten the livelihoods of people across rural Ireland”.
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) had recommended a 70% reduction in the EU’s mackerel quota next year.
ICES is an organisation that provides scientific advice on marine ecosystems and its advice is requested by bodies including the European Commission.
Walsh added that ICES’s “scientific advice is used by the EU to set fishing quotas”.
In its latest submission, ICES has advised a 70% reduction in the EU’s mackerel quota for 2026 due to the decline in the stock size and a reduction in the numbers of stock capable of reproducing.
Walsh has written to the European Commission to “demand” that Ireland’s fishing quotas are not cut following this advice publication.
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