Tide turns in talks over fishing crisis
LAST-DITCH talks to reach a settlement in the long-running mackerel dispute between the European Union and the Faroe Islands and Iceland ended in failure yesterday in a major blow for Scotland’s pelagic fleet.
Scottish fisheries leaders last night renewed calls for sanctions against the two Nordic nations following the collapse of the negotiations in Reykjavik – the eleventh to be held between the European Union, Norway and the rebel nations since Iceland and the Faroes first declared their own quotas for the vital North Atlantic stock.
In 2011 the Faroes set themselves a mackerel catch of 150,000 tonnes, up 75 per cent on 2010 and more than five times their agreed share in 2009. Iceland, which caught very little mackerel prior to 2008, set their own increased catch of around 147,000 tonnes last year.
Maria Damanaki, the European Fisheries Commissioner, warned: “The unilateral actions of Iceland and the Faroe Islands are putting the viability of the stock at risk.”
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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