There will be no pilchard quota allocated for the period 2018 to 2020.
The Cabinet, at its last meeting for 2017, last month, approved zero metric tons for pilchards.
Speaking at a media briefing on Monday, Information and Communication Technology Minister, Tjekero Tweya said the non-approval of the pilchard quota was to allow recovery of the fishing species.
Recently, an independent researcher said the pilchard species had been depleted and might never recover.
The minister said the decision not to allocate quotas was also due to the fact that the pilchard stock moved to different areas because of climate change and overfishing.