Several eastern Atlantic countries have minimum landing sizes for this species: EU (18 cm), Ukraine (15 cm), Turkey (20 cm), Bulgaria (22 cm), Romania (23 cm).

ICES advises that any agreed total allowable catch (TAC) should cover all areas where Northeast Atlantic Mackerel are fished. The agreed management plan (F between 0.2 and 0.22) would imply catches between 527 000 t and 572 000 t in 2010. The SSB is expected to remain stable in 2011 for a catch in this range. ICES further advises that the existing measures to protect the North Sea spawning component remain in place. These include: areas restricted to fishing, seasonal closures, and minimum landing size (30 cm in North Sea and 20 cm in Skagerrak). In June 2009, an agreement was concluded between contracting parties to the Coastal States on mackerel banning high grading, discarding, and slipping from pelagic fisheries targeting mackerel, horse mackerel, and herring beginning in January 2010 (STECF 2009).

For the western Atlantic stock, there are no management measures in place. However, the most recent stock assessment recommends that annual total catches do not exceed the average total landings (80,000 mt tonnes) over the last three years (TRAC 2010).