The Canadians claimed that the Turbot had relocated outside their EEZ to deeper waters, and they should have quotas based on their historical fisheries inside its EEZ. On the other hand, the Spanish and Portuguese (EU) claimed that this was an unexplored stock. Since they were the ones to explore the stocks initially, Spain and Portugal should have historic rights to the turbot fishery on the Grand Banks nose and tail, based on their historical catches, the total reported annual catches grew steadily from 27,000 t in 1990 to 62,000 t in 1994, when the Spanish and Portuguese vessels started to explore this fishery after other stocks were closed. Based on this catch history, the two countries claimed they should have 75% of the total turbot quota.