fleet and does not deal with the high-seas fleet. The 

 committee acknowledged that the Faroese fishing fleet 

 was too large for the available resources, but did not 

 recommend a reduction in the size of the fleet. ^ The 

 committee did not want to propose measures which 

 would increase unemployment, widen the income 

 gap, or add increased pressure on public budgets. It 

 has, therefore, recommended that the number of 

 fishery licenses in the Faroe Island's coastal fleet be 

 kept at the July 1, 1993 level. ^ An overview of the 

 Faroese fishing industry can be seen in tables 1-7. 



2. Fleet Background 



The first Faroese vessel to begin fishing in distant- 

 waters was the Fox, a 28-year old sloop purchased 

 from a fisherman in Grimsby, England in 1870." 

 The vessel, was used to fish off Iceland. Many 

 Faroese fishermen followed in these footsteps by 

 buying used boats in England for fishing off Iceland.' 

 A century later, the Faroese fishing fleet was 

 profitably fishing in 3 different zones: coastal waters 

 (inside the Faroese 200-mile EEZ), middle waters 

 (off Iceland, eastern Greenland, the North Sea, the 

 Baltic, Norway, and Rockall, UK), and distant- 

 waters (Newfoundland, western Greenland, off 

 Norway, including the Norwegian Sea and the 

 Barents Sea, shown in table 6). The establishment of 

 200-mile EEZs in the mid-1970s, however, adversely 

 affected the Faroese fishing industry and caused a 

 period of painful economic readjustment for the 

 whole Faroese economy.* In the early 1980s, 

 recognizing the loss of their former fishing grounds, 

 and faced with possible overfishing of their own 

 waters, the Government embarked on a program to 



Figure 1.— Faroese high-seas fishing fleet, 

 1975-92. 



modernize the Faroese fisheries. The Govenunent's 

 plan was twofold: first, to support the construction of 

 new vessels which could fish for new species of fish, 

 thereby reducing pressure on overfished species. 

 This included the construction of vessels which could 

 trawl in very deep waters within the Faroese 200- 

 mile zone. Second, it was designed to modernize 

 both onshore and offshore processing, to produce 

 higher quality products at more competitive prices for 

 export customers. One of the first vessels purchased 

 under this program, was the Reynsatindur, a 3,800- 

 Gross Registered Ton (GRT) vessel designed to catch 

 and process abundant stocks of blue whiting for 

 conversion into surimi (minced fish meat). This 

 vessel was purchased from Italy in 1983^ as part of 

 the program to shift the operations of the fishing fleet 

 away from traditional species; blue whiting was 

 abundant and production of the value-added surimi 

 appeared to be logical. The potential pitfalls of the 

 massive subsidy program, however, were becoming 

 clear as early as 1985,* but rather than reducing 

 subsidies, the Home Rule Government spent more 

 money on the modernization of the fleet. In 1986, 

 the Government earmarked $188 million to build 19 

 new vessels, including 4 shrimp trawlers, 1 or 2 

 scallop trawlers, 4 longliners, 4 blue whiting 

 trawlers, and 5 or 6 other vessels to replace outdated 

 vessels.' The increased size of the Faroese high-seas 

 fishing fleet could be seen in the period 1983-86 

 (tables 1 and 2 and figure 1). The Faroese highs-seas 

 fishing fleet in 1988 consisted of 35 vessels;'" 13 

 shrimp trawlers," 15 purse seiners and blue whiting 

 trawlers and 7 saltfish trawlers and longliners.'^ The 

 high-seas fleet declined to 25 vessels by 1990 as 

 economic dislocations forced many companies to 

 reduce their operations or sell off their vessels (table 

 3). 



Fishing beyond the Faroese 200-mile EEZ 

 remains an important source of fish to Faroese 

 fishermen; 123,000 tons out 25 1 ,000 tons were taken 

 in high-seas fisheries in 1992 (Table 6 and figure 

 2)." More than half of the cod and all of the shrimp 

 caught in 1992 came from waters outside of the 

 Faroe Islands.'" It is noteworthy that the Faroese 

 catch of cod has declined from 43,900 tons in 1989 

 to 20,800 tons in 1992. The catch of shrimp went 

 from 14,000 tons to 10,900 tons during the same 

 period. Landings of haddock and saithe also declined 

 signficantly during the same years. In 1992, 

 however, the catch of blue whiting, capelin, and 



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