Lögberg-Heimskringla - 03.06.2005, Page 2

2 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 3 June 2005
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Iceland’s Minister of Fisheries Arni M. Mathiesen visits New Iceland
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Árni M. Mathiesen was in Manitoba to open “Icelandic Fisheries: the Past 100
Years.” Stefan J. Stefanson and Consul General Atli Ásmundsson were on hand.
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Fisherman Robert T. Kristjanson has fished for about 60 years on Lake Win-
nipeg. He had a long talk with Iceland’s Minister of Fisheries.
Finds fishermen alike in
Iceland and Manitoba
Steinþór Guðbjartsson
Gimli, MB
During his brief visit to
Manitoba, Ámi M. Mathiesen,
Iceland’s Minister of Fisheries,
found many similarities between
fishermen of Icelandic descent
on Lake Winnipeg and Icelandic
fishermen. “Those who are part
of the fishing industry are very
much alike and they present
similar views,” he said.
Ámi M. Mathiesen was in
Manitoba to open the exhibit
“Icelandic Fisheries: the Past
lOOYears.”
“The modest exhibition
that we have put together for
you here is meant to explain to
those interested Iceland its his-
tory and livelihood, the story of
our century of change: the 20th
century,” he said. “During the
last 100 years it can be said that
revenues from fishing have cata-
pulted Iceland from being one of
Europe’s poorest countries to a
modem and affluent society.
“The first trawler owned by
Icelanders, the steam trawler
Coot, was delievered in March
1905 and laid the basis for a pe-
riod of marked progress in ma-
rine fishing.”
The Minister met Manitoba
Premier Gary Doer and Senator
Janis Johnson, among others. He
visited the Icelandic Collection
at the University of Manitoba
and toured New Iceland, where
he was greeted by farmers and
fishermen of Icelandic descent.
“The people I met are outstand-
ing,” he said.
Many people surprised the
Minister by speaking to him in
Icelandic. He said that he had
heard about this, but hearing it
was something else entirely. “If
I had met the same people at the
dock or at a roundup in Iceland
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204-772-7444
www.mts.net/~flcwin
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I would have assumed that they
lived in Iceland.”
He was also surprised how
many were in daily contact with
Iceland. “I even met people who
had just come back from Ice-
land, where they had been in
touch with people I have been
in touch with during the last few
weeks.”
The Minister said that Ice-
landers remembered with grati-
tute how Icelandic descendants
contributed to Iceland’s modem
society at the beginning of the
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20th century by putting money
into an Icelandic shipping com-
pany and thereby ensuring that
shipping to and from the country
would be in the hands of Ice-
landers themselves.
“With great foresight and
generosity many later gave their
shares to the University Fund in
Iceland, and that fund amounted
to approximately $40 million
CAD in the beginning of this
year. Icelanders will never forget
this generosity.”
Ámi M. Mathiesen de-
scribed the Icelandic quota sys-
tem and the management sys-
tem. “The ideology behind the
Icelandic quota system is simple.
Dividing up the catch among in-
dividual fishing vessels prevents
the wasted fishing effort nor-
mally associated with unfettered
competition for a finite number
of fish. The decision to allow
the transfer of quotas from one
vessel to another increases the
cost-effectiveness of fishing and
allows greater operational llex-
ibility. Finally, since the system
is market-based, the need for
centralized decisions by govem-
ment regulators is minimized.”
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