Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.08.2009, Qupperneq 8

8
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2009
The 1957 Treaty of Rome,
the rock on which the EU
is built, states that there
should be a common policy
for fisheries. That’s fundamental,
so don’t kid yourselves that there are
any exceptions to the rule. In the
1990s when Norway was jockeying
for position on EU membership, there
were no meaningful concessions from
Europe on fisheries, not even to one of
the wealthiest countries in the world
with its waters rich in oil as well as fish.
Iceland can’t realistically expect
any kind of permanent exemption—
for no other reason than that every
other member state with an interest in
fisheries would immediately attempt
to block this on the grounds that they
don’t get special treatment, so why
should a newcomer?
The concept of the European Union’s
Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is that
there should be a single umbrella policy
on fisheries as there is on agriculture.
In essence, Brussels is the benevolent
uncle who keeps a friendly eye on how
a member state manages its fisheries
on European lines. If only it were that
simple.
What happens in Greece or Portugal
isn’t the same as what goes on in
Holland or Denmark. The primary
premise that there should be a level
playing field across the Union just isn’t
the case. Over a decade and more of
writing about commercial fisheries, I
have yet to hear a positive opinion about
the CFP.
Good ol’ TACs are in the CFP
There’s actually plenty in the CFP that
Iceland would find familiar, such as the
concept of everything being managed
using the blunt instrument of Total
Allowable Catches (TACs). Quotas,
quota trading, discards, high-grading
and misreporting are all things that
Icelanders would find familiar about
fisheries in Europe, along with the same
triangle of distrust with fishermen,
scientists and administrators at each
corner—and a widening gulf between
them.
Across Europe, fisheries have been
struggling badly for years and the CFP
is then pilloried as the source of all
the fishing industry’s problems. But
to be fair, fishermen in Europe face
many of the same problems as those
outside the Union, although the CFP is
undoubtedly part of the mix.
There is mighty little that’s positive
about it. Fishermen regard the CFP as a
disaster on legs. The official line from
Brussels has been—of course—that
everything is just fine, but the noises
from the centre of things recently
indicate that even Brussels privately
views its own CFP as a failure.
Innocence and ignorance in
Brussels
The CFP has been with us since the
early 1980s and in the intervening
years we have seen cod, hake, sole and
a handful of other stocks supposedly
teetering on the brink of extinction.
It begs the question of where all that
cash, manpower and effort have gone if
the results aren’t better than that. The
reality is that the fisheries is a marginal
industry in European terms. DG Fish,
which administers fisheries, is a small
department in a bloated bureaucracy of
Byzantine complexity, stiff with back-
door deals and horse-trading, based in
an ivory tower far removed from the
practicalities of the industry it purports
to administer.
After all these years, I should be
used to it, but I still shudder when
presented with some of the innocence
and ignorance that stems from
Brussels.
Earlier this year, EU Fisheries
Commissioner Joe Borg announced
that more cutbacks are needed as 80%
of stocks are overexploited. On the
other hand, a year ago, an EU policy
document (COM(2008) 331) stated
that: "the state of some 57% of stocks is
unknown."
Did I miss something here? Was a
stack of European cash injected into
marine research over the last year?
Did Brussels suddenly come up with
definitive figures so that the 80% claim
can be considered credible?
The heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all
measures handed down by Brussels
are alarming, especially taking into
account that these people are dealing
with the livelihoods and businesses of
predominantly hard-working, honest
individuals and their families across
Europe.
What has also become apparent
is that DG Fish is increasingly
overshadowed by the more powerful
DG Environment. There is even
speculation that DG Fish could be
swallowed by its bigger brother with its
very different and far from fisherman-
friendly agenda.
Turning a supertanker
The sheer size of the bureaucracy and
the entrenched attitudes mean that
altering the course of policy is akin to
trying to turn a supertanker. We have
had cod, hake and sole in particular
on the list of threatened fish stocks
for years. Cod in particular has been
used as the rationale for some dramatic
cuts in fishing effort and fishing f leet
size, even though fishermen have
been reporting for some years that cod
are increasingly abundant. This year,
finally, there’s a cod quota increase.
Hake is up and sole looks to have
increased as well.
All well and good, and we can argue
endlessly over whether cutting fishing
effort has achieved this or if these are
natural cycles that would have occurred
anyway. But the damage has been done;
jobs have gone, communities have
been devastated and businesses have
disappeared. I can predict that within
a year or three, the f leet that’s left
will not be able to catch its quotas on
some species, but will still be subject to
ludicrous outdated restrictions on both
quotas and days-at-sea.
So what’s in it for Iceland?
Much of what you’ve gotten used to
already is a TAC based system, in which
discards and incorrect reporting are an
inevitable by-product.
On the other hand, ownership of
fishing companies would become open
to anyone and there would undoubtedly
be foreign investors with healthy
chequebooks doing the rounds. I say
"would be," but I know for a fact that
they’ve already been spying out the
land. Who knows? Deals may already
have been struck. Sooner or later a
proportion of Iceland’s seafood industry
would be in foreign hands.
Quota hopping, the use of different
f lags and brass-plate companies, would
become a reality. This is certainly not
new to some Icelandic operators who
already run vessels under foreign f lags,
primarily to obtain quotas or fishing
rights in particular areas, but there
would be the prospect of Iceland being
on the receiving end of this process
instead.
As an EU member, Iceland would no
longer be in charge of its own resources
and would be overridden by Brussels.
The Icelandic Ministry of Fisheries and
the Marine Research Institute could
be in full agreement that a 200,000
tonne cod quota is what’s justified, but
if Brussels says it should be half that
amount, that’s what it would be—and
no arguments.
Some would argue that it’s too high a
price to pay to have a country’s primary
industry under the ultimate control of
what can be seen as a faceless, distant
bureaucracy that can also be seen as
neither sympathetic nor competent.
On the positive side, while the 2002
CFP review largely rubber-stamped
a further ten years of pain, another
review is now in progress for 2012. We
can’t expect miracles, but hopefully
someone will see the light and a little
common sense can be used to bring the
CFP into line with reality—as it would
be too much to hope that it could simply
be scrapped and control handed back
to member states. But for Iceland, the
contents of that 2012 review should be a
vital factor in the larger debate.
Quentin Bates worked as a fisherman on
a variety of Icelandic and British fishing
vessels before turning to journalism 15
years ago. He currently writes mostly
technical material for Fishing News
International.
Current Affairs | The European Union Art | And then some...
Faceless Bureaucracy Or Benevolent Uncle?
By joining the EU, Iceland would lose much of its decision making powers over its own
resources, notably the fisheries. Let’s face it: there aren’t any exceptions here.
Dance with Us!
Laugavegi 21 - 101 Reykjavik - 551 6464 Kl
ap
pa
r
st
íg
ur
Laugarvegur
We are here:
Fun facts: Mr. Bates speaks perfect Icelandic, picked up during his stint as an
Icelandic fi sherman. He will soon be releasing his fi rst novel.
Rafskinna four will reportedly have a Japan-
theme
QUENTIN BATES
The good people behind Rafskinna have
been hard at work over the past year
aggregating stuff for the third issue of
everyone’s favourite DVD magazine.
Bearing the theme ‘Reflections,’
Rafskinna MK 3 hit stores last month
and one can tell at a glance that all
the hard work has paid off, as the gold
encrusted ten-inch sleeve that houses
it is brimming with curious content. We
called up Sigurður Magnús Finnsson
from the Rafskinna team and got him to
tell us a little bit about the latest edition,
where it comes from, what it means and
what’s in it.
“Rafskinna,” says Finnsson when
asked to elaborate, “is a DVD magazine
that contains short films, documentaries,
music videos, interviews, performance
art, and the like, as well as some printed
materials. The latest issue also contains
an audio CD – Rafsprengi – that we
made in cooperation with radio show
Hlaupanótan. It features four Icelandic
musicians of the younger generation,
Hildur Guðnadóttir and Kippi Kanínus, for
instance, recreating compositions by four
older masters, among them Atli Heimir
Sveinsson and Jórunn Viðar.
“We aim at presenting a broad
spectrum of work and ideas; Icelandic,
foreign, large, small, every possible
aspect of the visual arts, while
maintaining a red thread by keeping
focus on things that are grassroots
oriented. And of course we have a
running theme for each issue. Aside from
the DVD, we try and fit extras in with
each issue, there’s always some bonus
materials. This time around there’s the
Rafsprengi CD, as well as a poster by
Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir (Shoplifter), who
is this issue’s featured artist.”
-Tell us about issue three's featured
content.
“Well, to name a few things, we
take Emiliana Torrini on a ride around
Kópavogur, get Dälek to recycle old
Icelandic pancake recipes, there’s two
video pieces by the aforementioned
Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir, videos of Ólöf
Arnalds and Retro Stefson. We got Nico
Muhly to compose a piece for us, it’s
performed by Helgi Hrafn Jónsson on
the construction site of the forthcoming
music hall."
-You guys seem really ambitious.
Has everything been working out
financially? Making a magazine like
this can’t be cheap.
"It’s rough. We work hard at selling
them, just so we can afford to make
the next one. It’s a struggle, like a lot of
these things are in this country. But we
are distributing abroad now, this issue
is being sold in stores in Europe and the
US."
Any more cool things coming from
you guys?
“Yes, lots of stuff. More on that later.”
Expect a full review of Rafskinna three in
a forthcoming issue of the Grapevine. Get
it at cool bookstores and other stores that
are cool.
-HAUKUR S MAGNÚSSON
The New
Rafskinna Is
Out!
1. Fishermen regard the
Common Fisheries Policy
unreservedly as a disaster.
This Danish fisherman’s
boat demonstrates just how
he feels about Europe and
the CFP.