Two-tonne mackerel cap imposed on small boats for November fishing

Small Irish fishing boats that are not authorised to fish mackerel under Tier 2 will be limited to 2 tonnes of the species for the whole of November 2026, under a notice issued by Timmy Dooley, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The measure, Fisheries Management Notice No. 63 of 2026, was published in Iris Oifigiúil No. 88 of 3 November 2026, in Section I, under the reference FMN 2026/63. It came into force on 1 November 2026 and lapses on 1 December 2026.

The notice is made under section 12 of the Sea-Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act 2006 (No. 8 of 2006), read with the Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Delegation of Ministerial Functions) (No. 2) Order 2025 (S.I. No. 368 of 2025). It was signed by the Minister of State on 26 October 2026 at 16:00 hours and carries the title November Mackerel Under 18 metre Fishery Quota Management Notice 2026.

The instrument belongs to a monthly series of quota management notices that divide Ireland’s EU fishing entitlements between vessel segments. The same edition of the gazette carries companion notices for deep-sea species (Fisheries Management Notice No. 64 of 2026) and for demersal stocks for boats of 55 feet and over (Fisheries Management Notice No. 65 of 2026), both also running from 1 November to 1 December 2026.

A ceiling of two tonnes per boat

The restriction applies to a person on board an Irish sea-fishing boat of less than 18 metres in overall length to which a Tier 2 mackerel authorisation has not been granted, fishing for mackerel by means other than hooks and lines. No such boat may have on board, retain on board or land more than 2 tonnes of mackerel, whether taken on a single occasion or cumulatively with earlier landings during November 2026.

The limit covers the following waters, as set out in Schedule 1 of the notice:

• ICES sub-areas and divisions 6, 7, 8a, 8b, 8d and 8e
• United Kingdom and international waters of division 5b
• International waters of divisions 2a, 12 and 14

The stocks are identified in the schedule by the management code MAC/2CX14-. The fishing areas are those defined in Annex III to Regulation (EC) No. 218/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009, as amended, published in OJ L 87 of 31 March 2009.

One hour’s notice before port

Paragraph 4 of the notice introduces an advance notification duty. The master of an Irish sea-fishing boat, or his agent, must give not less than one hour’s notification of the intention to enter port whenever the quantities of mackerel on board exceed 250 kilograms.

For landings in a port in the Republic of Ireland, notification goes to the Irish Fisheries Monitoring Centre by telephone on 00 353 21 4378752 or by e-mail to fmcireland@defenceforces.ie. For landings outside Ireland, it must be given to the competent authorities of the member state where the landing is to be made, and for landings in third countries to the authorities of that country. Boats with a fully functioning electronic reporting system must submit the information through the pre-notification document.

Details required with each notification

Each notification must state:

• the name of the boat
• the designated port of landing
• the estimated time of arrival in that port
• the intended time of landing the catch
• the quantities in kilograms live weight of all species retained on board
• the management area where the catch was taken
• contact details

The notice’s explanatory note, which is not part of the instrument, describes the measure as setting restrictions on the catching, retaining on board or landing of mackerel by under-18-metre boats without a Tier 2 mackerel authorisation that fish by means other than hooks and lines during November 2026. Boats using hooks and lines fall outside the restriction as drafted, and holders of a Tier 2 authorisation are governed separately.

Why it matters

For skippers of the inshore fleet, the notice fixes the month’s maximum earning capacity from mackerel at a single figure per boat and adds a reporting burden measured in hours and kilograms, with the 250-kilogram threshold low enough to catch routine trips. Because the ceiling applies to combined landings across the month rather than to a single trip, a boat that lands its 2 tonnes early in November has no further mackerel quota for the remaining weeks, a constraint that falls hardest on vessels with few alternative stocks to fish in late autumn.

Source: Iris Oifigiúil, No. 88 of 3 November 2026, Section I, p. G-1A (official reference: FMN 2026/63).