|
A FIVE -point plan to bring Iceland and the Faroe Islands to heel over its mackerel policy, including an all-out ban on any fish products from those two countries, was presented to the European Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki yesterday.
She met the fishing delegation from Norway and the EU, including Scotland, for formal discussions which presented a strategy aimed at getting Iceland and the Faroes back to the negotiating table.
Because of more important commitments following the dreadful, fatal bomb explosion which damaged several government offices in Oslo on Friday, Norway's Fisheries Minister Lisbeth Berg-Hansen was unable to attend the meeting. The Minister hopes to invite the fishing industry association to Oslo sometime in the autumn.
In a joint statement afterwards, the Brussels meeting called for immediate inspections in Iceland and the Faroes by the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) with regard to illegal and unregulated fishing. There is real concern that the Faroes in particular are bringing in powerful foreign trawlers to catch the mackerel because their own fleet is not large enough to fulfil their self-imposed quota of 150,000 tons a year.
The post meeting statement also said that if Iceland and the Faroe Islands ignored the warnings then the EU should implement a complete import ban on all fish and fish products from the two countries. Furthermore, the EU has been asked to 'freeze' Iceland's membership talks until the issue is settled. The good news is that mackerel stocks are in good condition, but the meeting warned that if the 'plunder' continued the stock would be permanently damaged
The proposals also had the full support of Scotland's fishermen. Representatives from the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association were among those who spoke with Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki in Brussels.The group wants to see sanctions imposed on the two north Atlantic nations for ignoring EU-sanctioned mackerel fishing limits. And they have demanded that the EU considers a total ban on imports of fish from Iceland and the Faroes.For the fourth year in a row, Iceland and the Faroe Islands have allowed their fleets to take enormous catches of mackerel, ignoring measures to control overfishing.
During the meeting with Commissioner Damanaki, the fishermen noted that since 2006 the two nations have increased their share in the mackerel fisheries from five per cent to 46 per cent of the total allowable catch.
Should people be 'stimulated' to eat white fish alternatives to cod?
