THE Faroe Islands has expressed its disappointment at Canada's "heavy handed" decision to close its fishing ports to Danish flagged trawlers in a continuing dispute over fish quotas and territorial claims.The ban mainly affects boats from the Faroes and Greenland which, although partly independent, fly the Danish flag because Copenhagen looks after their defence and foreign policy interests.
The dispute is over the ownership of Hans Island, a tiny uninhabited atoll between Canada and Greenland and, more importantly over Denmark's decision to set itself a 3,100 tonne shrimp quota in a section of the sea known as "3L".
But Jørgen Niclasen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Faroe Islands, said: "This heavy-handed unilateral measure by Canada will not help resolve the long-standing issue of shrimp allocation, which needs to be dealt with multilaterally in NAFO (North Atlantic Fisheries Organisation). “The Faroe Islands and Greenland will continue to work in good faith to resolve the matter within NAFO,"he added.
Describing the ban as an "inconvenience", Minister Niclasen made it perfectly clear that the Faroe Islands and Greenland were not willing to accept a management measure for 3L shrimp which other NAFO Parties, including Canada, have also admitted is less than satisfactory. He expressed his surprise that the Canadian Government should resort to issuing such an ultimatum and going ahead with port closures on this basis.
“It is entirely unacceptable to expect us to revert to an unreasonable and unfair allocation of shrimp in NAFO, and then simply brand our shrimp fishery as “foreign overfishing” if we do not” he maintained.
“Port closures are an inconvenience for Faroese and Greenlandic vessels. They are not, however, a reason for us to compromise our right to a fair and responsible quota for 3L shrimp, based on our legitimate interest and history in the 3L shrimp fishery”, said Minister Niclasen.
Should fisheries be closed during breeding time to allow stocks to reach more sustainable levels?
