Spain Redistributes Unused Atlantic Bigeye Quota

Spain is reallocating 2,928 tons of unused 2026 Atlantic bigeye quota to vessels that have exhausted their allocations, drawing the surplus from Spanish boats unlikely to use their full quotas. The surplus can be used by Spain’s purse seiners, Canary Islands pole-and-line and artisanal fleets, surface longliners, and other boats catching bigeye as bycatch.

The announcement, published on the Spanish Fisheries Ministry site on September 4, stated that the government is “promoting the exploitation of fishing opportunities for this species in the area regulated by the ICCAT.” Furthermore, the mechanism addresses a past imbalance in which some vessels left quota unused while others exhausted their allocations before the end of the season and were forced to stop fishing.