Mackerel numbers have been declining since 2015 partly due to fewer young mackerel surviving to adulthood.

There are some other contributing factors.

The 17 mackerel-fishing countries have overstepped the ICES’s threshold by 41% on average since 2010. While most countries agree on the scientific limit, they do not agree on how to share it, meaning that overall catches exceed the advised amount. Stocks are assessed every few years by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which then sets advisory catch limits to protect numbers. The UK is one of 17 nations – including Iceland, Norway and several countries in the EU – that catch tonnes of mackerel from the north-east Atlantic annually. In a nutshell: the main problem is governments aren’t good at sharing fishing quotas and have heaped pressure on mackerel populations in recent years. But what prompted this decision? What should consumers do with this information? And are there any other sources of sustainable healthy fish oils? Why has mackerel been downgraded?

Fishing planet oscar florida