Iceland accused of ‘cynical propaganda exercise’ by Scots fishing industry as govenrment seeks quota increase

SCOTTISH fishermen’s leaders have accused the Icelandic government of a “cynical propaganda exercise” by attempting to drive a wedge between sectors of Britain’s seafood industry over the Nordic nation’s continued over-fishing of the North Atlantic mackerel stock.

They launched their attack after learning that the Icelandic Embassy in London and Iceland’s Ministry of Industries and Innovation is planning to hold a special briefing in Lincolnshire tomorrow for the local seafood industry in a bid to try and gain support for Iceland’s decision to declare a massive unilateral increase in its mackerel catch.

Two months ago sanctions to penalise the continued refusal of both Iceland and the Faroes to sign up to an international agreement on mackerel catches were agreed by the EU Fisheries Council.

Ian Gatt, chief executive of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association, said that the threat of sanctions had led to mounting fears amongst fish processors in the Humber ports of Grimsby and Hull that they could lose access to Icelandic whitefish supplies, such as cod and haddock.

And he claimed that the Icelandic government was now trying to take advantage of the concerns by holding tomorrow’s briefing session in Lincolnshire in a bid to create a split within the UK seafood industry.

Mr Gatt declared: “This is a cynical ploy where the Icelandic government intends to use spin to try and gain support for its totally indefensible over-fishing of the north-east Atlantic mackerel stock.

“We are very sympathetic to the concerns of the Humber seafood processing sector and we would be happy to meet with them as it is important that they are made aware of the true background to this dispute, which is threatening a UK fish stock resource of considerable value and for which we and our other international partners in the EU and Norway have been sustainably harvesting for many years.”

He added: “We believe the Icelanders will use the briefing session to claim that they are committed to sustainable mackerel fishing. This is a quite ludicrous assertion as their approach from the outset has never been to put the health of stock first for the benefit of all participants in the fishery, but instead hold it to ransom for their own advantage and without any due concern to the potential damage being inflicted upon it.

“We recognise that there needs to be a deal reached on this dispute, but it must be a fair and equitable agreement based on the facts rather than spin.”