Iceland

World Fishing has always been an admirer of Iceland. They may do everything at the very last minute but it still amazes how some 300,000 souls and a workforce of 7,000 can have had so much impact on other societies. Jobs are short today, but 20 years ago most adults were very busy with the day job, a business on the side and other money-making schemes.

In the 1950s Loftleiðir pioneered low-cost fares outside IATA rates and in the 1980s trailblazed cheap calls for global backpackers while tiny Eagle Air (five men and a telex) cornered the world market for charter plans to service the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca. They said they could get a plane and crew to anywhere in the world within 24 hours. There have been pharmaceutical plants for generic drugs which were less expensive and better formulated than the competition's. Cod liver oil sold worldwide.

The rock of cod

Yet it is the fishermen and their catches, particularly cod, which were and are even more so now, the bedrock of the economy. They also sell gutting and processing gear worldwide. Dadi Valdemarsson general manager of plastics packaging group Promens' Icelandic plant says they are feeling the downturn, but they are cushioned by their range of products and export widely.

How far can fish help repay the national debt? What fish will it lose to other EU states and will giving away fish stick in its craw like a pinbone? Apart from the Euro (which it now desperately needs) and control of its fish and agriculture, Iceland has effectively been an EU player in all but name since 1972. If the people agree, Brussels will say yes.

On 16 July, the Alþingi (Althingi), the Icelandic parliament, voted 33 to 28 to back the EU application proposal of the new, Left-Green/Social Democrat, governing alliance. The very same day Brussels welcomed the formal application from this “country with deep democratic traditions”. Two weeks later it breezed through the EU foreign ministers meeting. The Commission will evaluate (no surprises are expected) then pass their proposal to the European Parliament and Council of Ministers for a decision. A “yes” would trigger formal negotiations. All would then be down to a referendum in Iceland. Another reason argued for speed is that fish talks should start while Sweden is EU President – before fishing nation Spain takes over in January.

Fish pie shareout

There is a twist. It could change popular “Viking” resistance in Iceland to the EU. CFP reform will almost certainly mean more local management everywhere. Not only could Iceland have its Euro and much more of its fishcake than it thinks (and with less control from Brussels). Beached Iceland today could be the catalyst negotiating tomorrow which frees up more local control to everyone's advantage.

This twist struck WF as a result of chatting to Barrie C. Deas, CEO of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations (England, Wales and Northern Ireland). It could help Iceland's passage between the rock cod and the hard plaice. Mr Deas knows all about regional councils and more local management.

He says other countries may initially think there could be a bonus from access to Iceland's attractive stocks. In reality Icelandic society and the CFP are both in flux and the big reform issues are about “stability, separate inshore zones and new governance which gives more prominence to the regions, more local management and ways of devolving responsibility. In terms of access to Icelandic waters I am a bit of realist. I think one of the preconditions which Iceland will insist on is the status quo – in terms of management regime, especially against the background of the move to a regional approach. Over time you might see changes in terms of the ownership of the resource…I don't think you are likely to see overnight any cataclysm or huge increase in fishing opportunities for us in Icelandic waters.”

Iceland wants to retain complete control of its tradable quota system. But some in Iceland believe small fishermen have been pushed out as quotas have become concentrated in the hands of larger Icelandic companies. Quotas, they continue, have become inextricably bound up with loans from Icelandic banks and stock market trading. When shares drop, they argue, the value of the fish drops and when they rise, shares (and fish) are put out of the reach of the smaller fisherman.

Mr Deas says that one possible development he has heard might be that present quota holders in Iceland could face a yearly reduction over a number of years of a small percentage of their holdings. The situation is “full of imponderables”, he said.

The case against EU membership is clear cut for Fridrik Jon Arngrimsson, Chief Executive of LÍÚ (The Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners). The LÍÚ says no to membership, citing loss of sovereignty and lack of control over fish, amongst other key objections.

Mr Arngrimsson told WF there were “some rules and regulations we could not live with, for example, each member state can manage with ITQs [individual transferable quotas] or effort system or whatever. However…[under] the interpretation of the Constitution by the [Icelandic] Supreme Court we are not allowed to restrict the effort…I don't know exactly how that would fit in EU legislation.”

He told WF that the argument that the quota system had become more of a banking asset was just not true. He also says that rather than a CFP which in his view has been a failure “what would be more effective would be to put the responsibility on those who are using the stocks…Sometimes people are blaming Brussels for everything but Brussels doesn't have the tools to correct it”, he said. They would push for more local management along the lines of the Scottish herring fishery scene.

As far as the cod stocks were concerned he said they were still struggling to rebuild them to the level they want. The LÍÚ has also rejected allegations over illegal fishing of mackerel by Iceland and of course the stock is booming. On cod, Iceland has been working around a catch of between 130,000t to 200,000t over the past few years after poor recruitment at the end of the millennium. The figure set for the season from September was 160,000t. He added “Those who are out on the fishing grounds, they feel there is a lot of cod in the fishing grounds and it is very easy to catch it and we are more or less [having to avoid catching] cod…while fishing for other species.”

The special, cod-pool quota, contributed by the Icelandic government (for August and September only) for small vessels, had been “a complete failure”, he said. Some 400 to 500 small boats had got a licence and this quota had to be deducted from those who fish as their occupation for the whole year. “This was some ideology - that everyone could go and fish,” he said, adding that anyway there had long been a right for every citizen to go out and catch as much fish as they could consume.

“We negotiate with Faroes, Norway and Russia on straddling stocks for mackerel, herring, blue whiting, redfish, capelin, etc. That would then be the Commission's job and LÍÚ would not like that,” he said.

His main point is that it would be the well-organised fishing companies who have the best chance of making a sustained contribution to help revive the national economy. This would not be possible if there were “chaos” in the fisheries management “which is very easy to create...for example when you have 500 vessels fishing a few fish. What will come out of it? It is a waste.”

Officials in the fisheries and foreign ministries of the Faroe Islands confirmed to WF that in the event of Icelandic EU membership any present negotiations on fish with Iceland would be between the Faroes and Brussels, but they were already dealing generally with third countries. Under Home Rule, the Faroes have complete autonomy from Denmark in fish and trade. Denmark's own fish processing industry was already treated by the Faroes as a third-country buyer, they said.

Social fish

The new government also has a view on the role of fish and enterprise at home, not just in terms of the EU. Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir told the first session of the new Althingi in April, that the alliance would pursue justice and equality of opportunity in a healthy society of equals not one of two worlds, “…one for the rich and one of the poor, one for the strong and one for the weak…”.

This is probably how cod is seen for those with small vessels. Fisheries' expert, Icelander Jón Kristjánsson, says the small cod quota may be seen in a different light by that single fisherman using four jiggers who can pull in between two to four tonnes of cod in a week, the maximum small catch limit being 800kg a day. “The grounds are absolutely full of cod,” he said, “especially near the coast.”

The conundrum for him is a wider one. He points out that for 50 years the Icelandic cod catch was 400,000t to 450,000t and the argument was that if it was left to grow it would be 500,000t for ever. Cod has moved about, that is clear. Perhaps only the fish can answer to whom they belong and they are not talking. He says that the fry would go from Iceland to east Greenland and along that coast. It was proved in 1910 that cod also came from Greenland to spawn around Iceland. Tagging by Harold Thomson in the 1940s, Mr Kristjánsson said, also showed that there were several separate cod stocks in Canada, the Grand Banks and Iceland but there was no exchange of stocks. Icelandic cod stayed around Iceland, Mr Kristjánsson he said.

“The value of the fishery is not how much money you can make on it but how many people can make a living out of it,” he adds. He is convinced of the value of the Faroes' effort approach, which also reduces discards, and which “farms” the sea regularly. This, it is argued, keeps the stock young, healthy and productive just as farmers manage their fields and crops. “Fish stocks oscillate – and you have to catch them when they are available…the more you farm a stock the more they will reproduce.”

Likewise, he says, the Faroes' large trawlers are made to operate further out, leaving the nearer resource to smaller vessels. While haddock may be declining, there is an abundance of mackerel. “Mackerel is coming, hungry for food. It was here in the 1950s and around the coast of Norway but suddenly it is here again all around Iceland. The Norwegian stock of herring is now 10-12 million tonnes, as big if not bigger than in the 1960s,” he adds. “The Icelandic bycatch of herring amongst mackerel has increased so much (around 12 per cent) that the boats are forced to move north to avoid the mackerel.” As for the abundance of monkfish, which UK fishermen have also reported regularly over the last five years, he says Icelandic “lumpfish boats with coarse mesh catch lot of monkfish close to the shore but [are] not allowed to take it onboard because of the 2,000t quota which is held by just a few companies. If [fishermen] come ashore with it – they get 'policed'.”

As for the man handling the day to day realities of fish in Iceland, Dr Sigurgeir Þorgeirsson, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture, he is keeping his cards close to his chest and told WF: “The Ministry does not wish to comment or speculate publicly on matters to be negotiated on the fisheries side, but this is obviously going to be a major issue in the negotiations.” The fish entrails for inspection will be in a future report from the Althingi foreign relations committee.

The worrying question will be the answer to the “yes” or “no” EU referendum. For one Icelander, who preferred not to be named, the real fear was: “We will have a war here before we join the EU”.