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THE Faroe Islands has closed its controversial mackerel fishery for this year after taking more than 120,000 tons - much to the anger of Scottish fishermen. Iceland also completed its self-declared quota last month.
Of that Faroese total more than 21,000 tons was caught by foreign trawlers - some of them very powerful vessels indeed - which were given special licences to fish in Faroese waters. The Faroese and Icelandic independent stance on mackerel has been described by fishing leaders in Norway "as pirate fishing".
While there have been repeated calls for trade sanctions against these two countries, so far very little action has been taken apart from banning mackerel exports into the European Union and Norway.
There have been reports that the British Government has said sanctions should be imposed against Iceland and the Faroe Islands to stop their "reckless plundering" of stocks .
Scottish fishermen have repeatedly called for tougher measures against the countries, in the "mackerel wars" that began when Iceland and the Faroe Islands unilaterally increasing their share of north Atlantic stock. But there are unlikely to be any attempts to impose a ban on cod, haddock and other whitefish shipments from these two countries because thousands of fish processing jobs on the Humber and in Scotland depend on these supplies.
Ian Gatt, from the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen's Association, accused the Faroes of being reckless with their action. Meanwhile, spotter planes and ships from Marine Scotland are making regular patrols of the stretch of water, up to 180 miles north of the Shetland Islands.
Fridrik J. Arngrimsson, chief executive of the Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners, said that Iceland and Britain had the same rights to fish for mackerel within their respective jurisdictions and all countries had a responsibility to ensure that overfishing did not take place.
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