NEAFC in London: Mackerel, Russia Row, 3 Stocks at Stake

London is deciding the fate of Europe’s most contested fish this week. The 45th Annual Meeting of the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) opened on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, at the Holiday Inn Regents Park in Fitzrovia, and runs until Friday, 13 November. On the table: how much mackerel, blue whiting and Atlanto-Scandian herring can be caught in international waters in 2027, whether Russia’s unilateral mackerel grab gets tougher pushback, and whether the commission finally adopts a real ecosystem-based approach to managing the North-East Atlantic — 25 years after governments first promised one.

The stakes are unusually high. Atlantic mackerel, one of northern Europe’s most popular seafoods, has been driven so low by years of overfishing that scientists recommended a 77% cut in the catch for 2026. Instead, with no quota-sharing deal in place, actual 2026 catches are expected to reach around 400,000 tonnes — more than double the scientific advice. This week’s meeting is the last big chance to stop that cycle before the 2027 season.

NEAFC annual meeting 2026 at a glance

Detail	What we know
Meeting	45th Annual Meeting of the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC)
Dates	Tuesday 10 – Friday 13 November 2026
Venue	Holiday Inn Regents Park, Fitzrovia, London
Contracting parties	European Union, Norway, Iceland, United Kingdom, Russia, and Denmark (on behalf of the Faroe Islands and Greenland)
Main stocks	North-East Atlantic mackerel, blue whiting, Atlanto-Scandian herring
Key decisions due	High-seas catch limits for 2027, enforcement against over-quota fishing, ecosystem-based management measures
Outcomes published	After the meeting concludes on 13 November, via the NEAFC document portal

The three stocks: totals agreed, shares still a fight

The odd feature of this year’s meeting is that the headline numbers are mostly settled — and the hard part is not. In separate coastal-state consultations in London in October 2026, the six coastal states agreed total allowable catches (TACs) for all three pelagic stocks for 2027. What they have not agreed is how to divide those totals between themselves. Until a sharing deal exists, a TAC on paper does not guarantee that what is actually caught stays within the science.

Stock	2027 TAC agreed	Comparison	Sharing deal?
North-East Atlantic mackerel	352,938 tonnes	More than double the 2026 ICES advice of 174,357 tonnes (+102%)	No — talks scheduled for early December 2026
Blue whiting	1,064,191 tonnes	+25% vs 851,344 tonnes for 2026	No — countries still allocating independently
Atlanto-Scandian herring	588,004 tonnes	+10% vs 533,914 tonnes for 2026	No — revised sharing arrangement still missing

That gap between agreement and allocation is the story of the last decade in the North-East Atlantic. Coastal states have repeatedly agreed to set TACs within scientific advice, then failed to divide them — and each country has gone on setting its own unilateral quota. The result: all three stocks are subject to ongoing overfishing. For mackerel, the 2026 picture is the worst of it: scientists advised 174,357 tonnes, no shared agreement was reached, and actual catches are expected at around 400,000 tonnes.

NEAFC’s job this week is narrower but critical: it manages fishing in international waters — the high-seas pockets beyond national jurisdiction — and sets the control and enforcement rules that decide whether the coastal-state totals hold up once vessels leave national waters.

The Russia row: a 1,495-tonne cap under pressure

The most closely watched dispute in London is Russia’s mackerel quota. In 2026, Russia unilaterally raised its mackerel quota to 22.5% of the total allowable catch — equivalent to 67,548 tonnes, almost five times the share it held in 2004. The other coastal states regard that as far above any level they recognise.

In response, NEAFC — on a proposal tabled by the European Union — adopted measures earlier in 2026 to curb the unsustainable fishing. The agreed measures:

Limit Russian catches of mackerel in international waters to 1,495 tonnes.
Prohibit NEAFC members from facilitating unsustainable Russian fishing — vessels may not tranship from, or provide refuelling services to, Russian fishing vessels that exceed that 1,495-tonne limit.
The European Union, the United Kingdom and Iceland decided to apply these restrictions not only in international waters but also within their own jurisdictions.

The measures entered into force on 28 August 2026, despite Russia’s objection. Industry observers in London this week are watching whether contracting parties push for tougher enforcement — particularly around transhipments at sea and the provision of support services to vessels fishing outside the agreed conservation arrangements.

The European Commission has welcomed the NEAFC measures while deploring Russia’s further quota increase in 2026, and has said it is preparing to implement the measures into EU law.

25 years on: will NEAFC finally manage the ecosystem, not just the fish?

The second big item in London is ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) — managing the ocean as a connected system rather than one species at a time. In 2001, more than 60 nations adopted the Reykjavik Declaration, pledging to move away from single-species management and incorporate ecosystem considerations into fisheries decisions. Twenty-five years later, high-seas EBFM in the North-East Atlantic has seen little progress.

There are examples that it can be done. Greenland and Iceland have agreed to set capelin catch limits based on the abundance and distribution of cod, one of capelin’s main predators. A recently adopted ecosystem-oriented long-term management plan covers North Sea herring. The UK banned all sandeel fishing in its waters in 2024. And the European Union — a member of another regional body, the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) — recently agreed with IATTC’s other members to adopt EBFM for the eastern Pacific Ocean.

At this meeting, NEAFC is considering a “foundational measure” that would set a roadmap towards more concrete ecosystem measures — including a mechanism that assesses and adjusts the pressure fisheries put on the broader marine food web. The Pew Charitable Trusts, which has campaigned for the move, argues the timing is right: the UN High Seas Treaty (BBNJ Agreement) entered into force on 17 January 2026, and its first Conference of the Parties convenes in January 2027, when governments will begin considering how to use the treaty’s tools to protect ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction — including parts of the ocean where NEAFC manages fishing.

Delegates are also expected to discuss protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems, management of deep-sea fisheries, and coordination with other international bodies on area-based conservation measures, including marine protected areas beyond national jurisdiction.

Why Indian readers should care

The fish at the centre of this fight is not the fish on Indian plates. Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus) is a different species from Indian mackerel (Rastrelliger kanagurta), which supports a major domestic fishery — India landed about 2.63 lakh tonnes of Indian mackerel in 2024. No Indian supply or price is at stake in London this week.

What is at stake is the precedent. NEAFC is the largest of the world’s regional fisheries management organisations, with 60 member governments and cooperating parties, and other fisheries bodies watch it closely. If the world’s biggest RFMO cannot stop its members fishing above the science, that weakens every other RFMO — including the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, which manages the tuna India exports. If it adopts ecosystem-based rules and enforces them, that is a template other oceans can copy.

There is also a direct Indian connection in the treaty behind the EBFM debate: India signed the BBNJ Agreement in September 2024 but had not ratified it as of late 2025, so the treaty does not yet bind India. The decisions taken at NEAFC this week, and at the BBNJ Conference of the Parties in January 2027, will shape the high-seas rules India will eventually have to live with — whether or not it has ratified by then.

What happens next: dates to watch

When	What to watch	Why it matters
Friday 13 Nov 2026	NEAFC 45th Annual Meeting concludes; outcomes published via the NEAFC document portal	High-seas mackerel limits, enforcement measures, EBFM decision
Saturday 14 Nov 2026	EU–Mauritania fisheries protocol expires at midnight	60 EU vessels lose authorisation to fish in Mauritanian waters unless a renewal is announced
16–23 Nov 2026	ICCAT Commission meeting, Vilamoura, Portugal	The world’s largest tuna body decides catch limits and observer coverage for Atlantic tunas
Early December 2026	Coastal-state talks on mackerel quota shares	Decides whether national quotas sum to 352,938 tonnes or overshoot it again
January 2027	First Conference of the Parties to the BBNJ Agreement	Governments begin using the High Seas Treaty’s tools to protect ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction

How to follow the outcome

Check the NEAFC document portal after 13 November for the annual meeting report and adopted recommendations — the meeting papers and final outcomes are published there.
Look for three things in the outcome: the high-seas mackerel recommendation, any new enforcement language on transhipment and refuelling, and whether the ecosystem-based “foundational measure” was adopted or only noted.
Then watch early December: the coastal-state share talks decide whether the 352,938-tonne total for 2027 is a real ceiling or another number the fleet sails past.
For exam aspirants: NEAFC, ICES advice, TAC vs actual catch, and the BBNJ treaty are all standard questions in fisheries exams — note the numbers in the tables above.

Frequently asked questions

What is NEAFC?
The North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission is the regional fisheries management organisation for the North-East Atlantic. Its six contracting parties are the EU, Norway, Iceland, the UK, Russia, and Denmark (for the Faroe Islands and Greenland). It manages fisheries in international waters of the region and sets conservation and control measures.

Why is mackerel in trouble?
Years of overfishing by more than half a dozen nations drove the stock so low that ICES advised a 2026 catch of just 174,357 tonnes — a cut of about 77%. With no sharing agreement, actual 2026 catches are expected near 400,000 tonnes.

What did the coastal states agree for 2027?
Total allowable catches of 352,938 tonnes for mackerel, 1,064,191 tonnes for blue whiting and 588,004 tonnes for Atlanto-Scandian herring — but no agreement yet on how to share them between countries.

What is the Russia dispute about?
Russia set a unilateral 2026 mackerel quota of 67,548 tonnes (22.5% of the TAC). NEAFC measures limit Russian catches in international waters to 1,495 tonnes and ban members from helping vessels that exceed it, including through transhipment and refuelling.

What is ecosystem-based fisheries management?
Managing fisheries by looking at the whole ecosystem — food-web interactions, changing ocean temperatures, predator–prey relationships and long-term objectives — instead of assessing each fish stock in isolation. Governments promised it in the Reykjavik Declaration of 2001; NEAFC is now considering a foundational measure to start implementing it.

Does this affect Indian mackerel?
No. Indian mackerel is a different species and a different stock. The London decisions matter for India as a precedent for how regional fisheries bodies enforce science-based limits — and through the BBNJ treaty, which India has signed but not yet ratified.