Iceland Says It `Deserves' to Catch More Mackerel as U.K. Dispute Deepens
Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Ryan Chilcote reports on a dispute between Iceland and the U.K. over mackerel fishing quotas and the risk the row may affect the North Atlantic nation's bid to join the European Union. (Source: Bloomberg)
Iceland’s decision to let its fishermen catch 65 times more mackerel than before won’t push the island into a new cod war with the U.K. as it’s only taking what it “deserves,” Fisheries Minister Jon Bjarnason said.
“We’re only doing what we’re fully entitled to do,” Bjarnason said in an interview in Reykjavik yesterday. “We’re fishing the mackerel, it’s in great abundance here, and we have the same right as other nations have when it comes to fishing within territorial waters.”
Iceland’s determination to ignore international quotas is souring relations with the U.K., already fraught after the Atlantic island’s failure to resolve depositor claims stemming from the collapse of one of its biggest banks in late 2008. The U.K. government accused Iceland on Aug. 26 of “behaving irresponsibly” and “undermining the sustainability of the stock.” The European Commission said the raised quota is leading to “overfishing,” which is a matter of “concern” for the bloc, Agence France-Presse reported Aug. 25.
Iceland’s government this year raised its mackerel quota to 130,000 tons from 2,000 tons. The island’s fishing vessels have already caught more than 100,000 tons, local newspaper Frettabladid reported, citing Fridrik Arngrimsson, the head of the Icelandic Federation of Vessel Owners.
“I think we’re taking from the stock what we deserve, according to estimates on the mackerel stock surrounding Iceland,” Bjarnason said.
Struan Stevenson, a member of Britain’s governing Conservative Party and a lawmaker in the European Parliament, has called for an EU-wide blockade of Icelandic ships.
‘Play Hardball’
“We should play hardball by closing EU ports to their vessels and banning all imports from” Iceland, Stevenson said on Aug. 23 in a statement on his website. “They need to understand the serious repercussions of this selfish and short- sighted action.”
Iceland isn’t expecting other countries to interfere with its fishing and Bjarnason said he doesn’t “believe that any civilized nation would carry out such an act.” He expects to be able to settle the dispute through negotiations in October.
Iceland last came into conflict with the U.K. over its fishing rights in the 1970s in the so-called “cod wars.” That dispute, which the Icelanders called the Landhelgisstridin, or the war for territorial waters, followed the island’s decision to declare an exclusive economic zone that extended beyond its waters. The feud resulted in the U.K. sending a fleet of warships to protect its fishing craft after the Icelandic coastguard cut through British fishermen’s nets to free cod they said were unlawfully caught.
“The mackerel is just like any other species that we have to negotiate on,” Bjarnason said.
Mackerel is a migratory fish that the Icelandic government says has been spending longer in Icelandic waters because of warmer sea temperatures.
When accession talks began on July 27, the EU identified Iceland’s refusal to accept EU fishing quotas as one of the main obstacles to membership.
To contact the reporter on this story: Omar R. Valdimarsson in Reykjavik valdimarsson@bloomberg.net.
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