The solid Scottish united front against Faroese and Icelandic mackerel scavengers is showing signs of wilting, with an Aberdeen producer praising the Faroe way of managing their stocks – as opposed to the way the EU has done it.
The conflict surrounding mackerel stocks that have migrated from EU to Faroe and Icelandic waters in search of cooler temperatures entered an acute phase in early August, when Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki suggested that vessels from those nations could be banned from Union waters next year if the dispute is not solved.
Just two weeks earlier the EU had opened membership talks with Iceland, the latter party making clear that fisheries could not be included in an agreement.
Protests have been vehement among both fishermen and local politicians, particularly in Scotland, and in the last week of August a Faroe vessel was blocked from unloading its mackerel catch at Peterhead.
Meanwhile, a Scottish Tory member of the UK Parliament, Struan Stevenson, called for an immediate EU-wide blockade of Icelandic and Faroese ships and goods, and their fisheries ministers to be summoned to Brussels for talks.
“Iceland and the Faroes are acting just like their Viking ancestors”, he said, “only this time it’s our mackerel they’re plundering”.
The Scottish reactions were challenged, however, when Alexander Charles, head of an Aberdeen fish producing company angrily criticized the Peterhead incident, and suggested that the Scottish Government and fishing industry should be targeting their wrath at failed European Union fishing policy and not at the Faroe Islands.
He told The Press and Journal, an Aberdeen daily, that Faroe ought to be praised for its record on fisheries management, and claimed Scottish supermarket shelves would be 60-70 percent devoid of fish if there were no imports of Icelandic and Faroese fish.
“The Faroese know a lot more about fish stocks than the often subjective scientists whose data is used by the European Commission”, he added.