THE ICELANDIC FISHERIES MANAGEMENT

BACKGROUND AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

Fisheries management of Iceland has developed in two distinct phases. In the first period from 1901-1976, the Icelanders campaigned to gain sovereignty of the country's fishing grounds. During this period Iceland had very little control over most of the important fish stocks and it became very clear that effective fisheries management could only be based on the sole rights of the fishing grounds.

The second period, from 1976 to the present day has been a process of adaptation to the requirements of a management system for biologically and economically sustainable fisheries.

PRESENT DAY FISHERIES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Free access to the fisheries is considered to be one of the basic rights of the Icelandic people but in recent times it has become quite clear that free access would lead to overexploitation of important resources and it has proved necessary to limit fishing effort for most of the commercially utilized fish stocks.

Scientific assessment of marine resources and recommendations for fishing restrictions are the basis for the annual allocation of the total allowable catch (TAC) from the stocks. An increasing number of stocks has been managed by this process but others are not subject to fishing restrictions or are not fished.

The Fisheries Management Act of 1990 was the cornerstone of the present fisheries management system. By this Act, the system of individual transferable quotas (ITQ) was established for the fisheries. The quotas represent shares in the total allowable catch and are allocated to fishing vessels. The quotas are permanent, perfectly divisible and fairly freely transferable. The quota year is set from Sept 1 to Aug 31 in the following year.

Since 1991, a number of amendments have been made to the fisheries management system. In August 2006 the legislation was re-issued as Law nr 116/2006, thus including all the changes made to the original 1990 legislation.

The Ministry of Fisheries is responsible for management of the Icelandic fisheries and the implementation of legislation to this effect.

The Marine Research Institute is the centre of scientific research for marine resources and responsible for recommendation of the annual TAC for the stocks subject to catch restrictions.

The Directorate of Fisheries and the Coast Guard are responsible for ensuring compliance with the Fisheries Management Act.

The overall aim of the Fisheries Management Act is to protect marine resources and lead to an economic and efficient utilization of stocks and thereby to underpin the seafood industry and secure employment in the country. The law also specifically states that exploitable marine stocks are the common property of the Icelandic nation.

fisheries@fisheries.is

The Icelandic Ministry of Fisheries