The Canary Islands’ waters and the fleet based there are playing a central role in reorganizing Spain’s remaining bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) quota for the final stage of the 2026 fishing season. The Secretariat-General for Fisheries has activated the annual optimization mechanism regulated in the Official State Gazette (BOE No. 219), releasing a common pool of 2,927,883.42 kilograms for the Atlantic fishing sector as a whole.
The contribution of the Canary Islands fishing sector is decisive in creating this common pool. Canary pole-and-line tuna vessels are providing the largest individual share under the resolution, contributing 1,112,964.95 kilograms not used as of August 20. This is supplemented by 194,986.11 kilograms from the remaining quota of the Canary Islands’ small-scale fleet, bringing the archipelago’s vessel owners’ direct contribution to more than 1.3 million kilograms.
The mechanism allows any authorized vessel that has used 100% of its initial fishing capacity to fish directly against the common pool of 2,927 tonnes until it is fully depleted, without requiring prior administrative authorization. As of the date the order was published, the total bigeye tuna quota available under the regulations of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) stood at 8,420,350 kilograms.
The regulations impose strict operating conditions for accessing the common quota: vessels with their own allocation must use it in full before drawing on the global pool. In addition, vessels that, as of August 20, had recorded catches exceeding their adjusted quota by more than 10% are excluded from the benefit of this redistribution.
Canary Islands fleet contributes 1.3 million kilograms to redistribution of 2026 Atlantic bigeye tuna quota was first published on canarymaritime.com.
