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A SENIOR figure in the Norwegian Fishing Vessel Owners Association has criticised Iceland and the Faroe Islands over its mackerel policy, describing it as pirate fishing.
In an unusually strong statement, the association's chairman Tore Roaldnes, said it was very serious that Iceland and the Faroe Islands had undermined "the management of fish resources in the North Atlantic and international fisheries cooperation through a totally irresponsible and unregulated fishing of mackerel."
Mr Roaldnes said unless there was a change of policy, responsible fishermen in Norway and the European Union would have to pay for the "unacceptable Icelandic and Faroese mackerel fishery".
It was therefore important that the governments of Norway and the EU maintained their opposition and found measures that forced Iceland and the Faroe Islands to come to the negotiating table with a realistic attitude as to what quotas they should receive. Iceland and the Faroes have given themselves a 146,000-tonne and 150,000-tonne quota respectively for this year.
The Norwegian vessel owners' chief added that he understood very well the strong frustration among law-abiding Norwegian fishermen that pirate fishing in Iceland and the Faroe Islands seemed to be continuing year after year without any "consequences for the culprits".
Mr Roaldnes said it was important that both the EU and Norway did not reward these two "irresponsible" nations and he pointed out that many Faroese fishermen were not happy with their own government's current policy. There were also signs that the large shoals of mackerel which have appeared in Icelandic waters are now moving out of the area.
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