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ICELAND is continuing to defy the European Union and Norway over its controversial mackerel quota with two of its main fishing companies announcing maximum effort.
In fact one of them, Samherji, has brought the 7,800 ton Kristina EA, the largest ship in the Icelandic fishing fleet up from the Canary islands to hunt for mackerel and herring in Icelandic waters.
Kristina (previously the Engey RE) came in to the ownership of Samherji three years ago and has been on hire since then, fishing off the shores of Africa. The Captain of Kristina EA is Arngrímur Brynjólfsson and his crew counts 35. The ship is equipped with powerful and highly technical processing and freezing machinery and the catch will all be processed on board.
Meanwhile, HB Grandi's pelagic fleet is back in the hunt for mackerel and herring after a short break. All three vessels stopped fishing recently to fit in with the Vopnafjördur factory’s break in production and are back at sea now to have raw material for production to resume next week. So far this season HB Grandi’s pelagic vessels have landed 7300 tonnes of Atlanto-Scandian herring, with 23,000 tonnes remaining of their quota. The company says that catches of mackerel have been heavier, with 11,150 tonnes landed so far, leaving 4,400 tonnes of the quota to be caught.
Up to last weekend the total catch by Icelandic vessels was 75,000 metric tons, 58 per cent of its self declared quota of 130,000 tons. The Faroe Islands have also given themselves a quota of 85,000 tons, much to the anger of the EU. Yesterday the Scottish Fishermen's Federation urged the Faroese to give up the quota.
The Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners Association has said that its country has “every right to fish for mackerel within the Icelandic jurisdiction” just as Norway and the EU have the right to fish for mackerel in their respective jurisdictions.
Should fisheries be closed during breeding time to allow stocks to reach more sustainable levels?
