European Union and the United Kingdom - fisheries consultations: written record 2026

Spurdog [3]

a) The Delegations noted the ICES advice that, when the MSY approach is applied, catches of spurdog (Squalus acanthias) in subareas 1-10, 12 and 14 should be no more than 22,594 tonnes in 2026. 

b) The Parties agreed that the total advised catches would inform the 2026 TACs for Western (DGS/15X14), North Sea (DGS/2AC4-C) and Skagerrak (DGS/03A-C). 

c) The Delegations recognised the NEAFC Recommendation on Conservation and Management Measures for Spurdog (Squalus acanthias) in ICES subareas 1-10, 12 and 14 for 2025 and 2026 which continues to advise a precautionary approach.

d) The Delegations acknowledged the advice provided by ICES (7 October 2025) in response to their 2025 joint request, to investigate alternative management scenarios for spurdog as part of ongoing work to review the effectiveness of the 100cm maximum size in protecting mature females.  Informed by the ICES response, the Parties agreed to remove the 100cm maximum size to enable greater use of the TAC.   

e) The Parties also agreed to work towards removing the maximum size from their respective regulations as soon as possible in 2026. 

f) The Delegations continued to recognise the biological distribution of the stock, and the importance of responsible international fisheries management. Noting that the stock is not currently managed at a wider coastal State level, the Parties agreed that the TACs should continue to take account of other coastal State catches, as set out in Table A below. The Parties again agreed that for 2026 this overall deduction should be set at 2,474 tonnes (this is 10.95% of the ICES advice), derived from historic catch data. The adjusted headline advice is 20,120 tonnes.  

g) The Parties agreed to continue to exercise caution in managing spurdog to ensure the continued recovery of the stock, by setting a TAC at 54.05% of the adjusted headline advice. This results in a TAC for 2026 of 10,875 tonnes.    

h) The Delegations recognised the importance of continuing the scientific work to ensure the future sustainability of the stock. To this end, the Parties agreed to further work in 2026 through the SCF to consider the implementation of a Minimum Conservation Reference Size for spurdog, and, to consider the need for further requests to ICES, as suggested in their advice, to ensure the long-term sustainable management of the stock. The Parties further agreed to hold technical discussions under the SCF in 2026 to build their understanding of the survivability of spurdog, with a view to considering whether there is sufficient evidence to support a high survivability exemption for spurdog. 

i) The Delegations noted the ICES advice that, should fishing patterns significantly change, further management measures may be required to avoid adverse impacts to the continued recovery of the stock. Therefore, the Delegations agreed to continue the monitoring mechanisms to detect and react as appropriate to significant changes from historic fishing patterns and agreed that they will continue to formally review catch data regularly through the SCF.   

j) The Parties agreed that the apportionment and sharing arrangements set out in paragraph 4(f) of the 2024 Written Record would be applied again for 2026. These are summarised in Table B below.  

k) Each Party will grant to vessels of the other Party full access to its waters in 2026 to fish the North Sea spurdog TAC at a level that is reasonably commensurate with the Parties’ respective shares of that TAC. Access to the zone in the waters of the Parties between six and twelve nautical miles from the baselines will only be to ICES division 4c and only to the extent that each Party's qualifying vessels had access to that zone on 31 December 2020 ("qualifying vessel" means a vessel of a Party, which fished in ICES divisions 4c or 7d-g in the zone mentioned in the previous sentence in at least four years between 2012 and 2016, or its direct replacement). For greater certainty, the Parties confirm that all other catches (quota or non-quota stocks) by vessels fishing under this access arrangement are covered by Article 2(1) of Annex 38 to the TCA and Decision 1/2025 of 19 June 2025 of the SCF.   

l) For the avoidance of doubt, the Parties agreed that all the arrangements concerning spurdog are without prejudice to arrangements in future years 

Table A – Overall spurdog catch figure in 2025 

Table B – TAC apportionment, UK EU shares and values in 2026