Icelandic Minister of Fisheries Jon Bjarnason has decided to allow a 130,000 tonne quota for capelin fishery this year. Read the full story

“This is of course very positive news. This is the best news we’ve had in a long time,” says Fridrik J. Arngrimsson, managing director of LIU (The Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners). His joy is closely related to the results of the newest Icelandic Marine Research Institute survey, which gives a brighter outlook for cod stocks than had been expected. Read the full story

Norway is set to introduce strict new rules for commercial fishing boats requiring all fish caught within its waters to be landed at an official fishing port. The regulations will state that all boats, regardless of nationality, must take their catch back to a proper port in a bid to discourage wasteful dumping of fish when boats do not have a quota, FishUpdate.com reports.

The announcement was made by Helga Pedersen, Norway’s fisheries minister, upon her return from the Nor-Fishing Exhibition in Trondheim. The decision to tighten fishing rules within Norwegian waters probably stemmed from a recent incident in which two British trawlers were witnessed dumping their catch within Norwegian territory because they had no quota and thus could not return to port in the UK.

Pedersen said, “I want a requirement that all fish caught in Norwegian waters, also by foreign vessels, must be taken to port, regardless of which final port is used. We will introduce new requirements, for instance as a condition for obtaining licenses to fish, that vessels wishing to fish in Norwegian waters cannot discard valuable fish caught here. Moreover, in connection with the annual quota negotiations between the EU and Norway this autumn, we will demand further binding measures to reduce the discard of all joint stocks.”

She added that, “Discard not only means a massive waste of food and potential income, it also leads to unrecorded catches, resulting in a poorer scientific basis for our management decisions.”

Acting on the advice of Iceland’s Marine Research Institute (MRI), Einar K. Gudfinnsson, Iceland’s Minister of Fisheries, recently declared a sudden halt to all capelin fishing. The MRI believes that stocks of the fish have dwindled to point where fishing must be stopped, according to a report from FishUpdate.com.

Gudfinnsson said, “This is an immense shock for the entire society, the companies, the fishermen, fish processors and the communities that depend on capelin the most. But we had no other option because only a small number of capelin has been found.”

Concern over dwindling fish stocks led to a similar cut in cod quotas six months ago. Both announcements were met with dismay by the Icelandic fishing industry which is facing serious challenges this year.

According to Glitnir Bank, the decision will not only affect fishermen, but also the seafood industry as a whole.

The MRI said that a school count of 400,000 capelin is required in order to make fishing sustainable. Unfortunately the Institute’s ships have only counted somewhere between 200,000 and 270,000 fish since early January, leading them to believe that fishing cannot continue in a sustainable manner.

Thorsteinn Sigurdsson, who directs the Institute’s pelagic division, said: “We have no explanation for why the capelin isn’t reproducing. The numbers of young capelin the year before last indicated that we would see many more adult fish now.”

In 2002, the export of Icelandic capelin generated €200 million. The fish is used for fish meal, oil industry products, salmon feed and for human consumption. Capelin roe is a sought after product, particularly in Asia, where it is believed to act as an aphrodisiac.

An Icelandic fishing union is planning to take one of the nation’s largest trawler companies to court over its decision to cut staff at a fish processing plant, according to a report from FishUpdate.com.

HB Grandi announced plans to cut around 60 jobs from a fish processing plant in Akranes, near Reykjavik, last month.

According to Eggert Benedikt Gudmundsson, HB Grandi’s chief executive, the cuts were necessary because of the decreasing size of the company’s annual cod quota. He added that the company would be willing to help those employees made redundant find employment elsewhere.

Of the 64 workers who received redundancy letters, 20 will be rehired after a period of leave says the company. However none of the workers is clear about their status at this time.

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Iceland has been accused by the United Nations Human Rights Committee of disregarding the rights of two fishermen in Iceland by refusing to allocate them the fishing quota they had applied for, reports FishUpdate.com.

Erlingur Sveinn Haraldsson and Örn Saevar Sveinsson, the two fishermen, chose to fish in a boat with no quota after their applications were denied. The Icelandic Supreme Court ruled against them.

The committee ruled that the 26th article of the relevant UN treaty, declaring that all types of discrimination are prohibited, had been violated by the Icelandic authorities. The Human Rights Committee urged Iceland to instate a system of fisheries control that heeds international law, and to fully compensate the two fishermen.

The committee said that the quota system is unfair because it provides advantages to original recipients of permanent quotas. The verdict is nonbinding, but Einar Gudfinnsson, Minister of Fisheries, said it was being seriously considered.

Iceland’s large cut in cod quotas last year may cause another fish processing plant to close down, reports FISHupdate.com.

Located in the remote area of Dalvik in northern Iceland, the plant is a significant part of the community’s livelihood. Due to operational difficulties, the Kraekir company has said that all of its 32 employees will be made redundant.

Henning Johannesson, company owner and chairman of the board, said that the price of fish, poor catch and the value of the Icelandic krona were all contributing factors to the operational difficulties. The implementation of the cod fishing quota in September pushed Kraekir over the edge, according to Johannesson.

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