The retailer is to stop sourcing fresh, chilled and frozen mackerel by April 29, as well as tinned mackerel once its current stocks have been sold. With the most recent, highly restrictive fishing quota announcements for Ireland, will it be long before we have reduced availability of once-common mackerel in our shops? As with many other species, mackerel around our coast are also diminishing because of overfishing. We’re facing a mackerel quota reduction of more 70% this year, following recommendations by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) because stocks are now below safe biological limits. There’s a tradition of mackerel fishing in West Cork ports like Kinsale and Baltimore, as there is of casting lines from rocks around the coast.

Source: Irish Examiner March 19, 2026 07:30 UTC