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THE Icelandic Government has ordered the country's trawler fleet to stop fishing for mackerel with the result that more than 20 vessels have been forced to return to port in the past two weeks.
The decision has also created another problem - fishing for herring has dropped off significantly as a result. The fishing company HB Grandi said catches have been poor. The difficulty is that trawlers fishing for herring at times cannot avoid picking up some mackerel in their nets, but the amount is well within the agreed limit.
The herring are also proving to be elusive. Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson, head of HB Grandi’s pelagic division said: "The pair teams are the ones that have been doing better, but the herring have been moving fast and haven’t been an easy target."
Mackerel fishing became a controversial issue a few months ago when, in defiance of international opinion, Iceland gave itself a 112,000 ton quota - a move that angered the EU and Norway, which threatened to ban Icelandic vessels from its waters.
Iceland staunchly defended the move stating it was a coastal state with every right to fish for mackerel under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea. It also claimed that it had been left out of international talks on mackerel management by the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission. The latest figures show that less than half of Iceland's self declared mackerel quota for the year has actually been taken up, so the decision remains a mystery.
Should fisheries be closed during breeding time to allow stocks to reach more sustainable levels?
