Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Blaðsíða 318

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LE NORD
kind carried on in old times. Shortly after 1860 the Norwegians
began fishing herring off Iceland, and some years later, or in 1875,
the Icelanders themselves commenced herring fishing. As time
passed almost all food-fishes found in Icelandic waters have found
their place in the fishery of the nation. At present the species of
the greatest importance are: cod, herring, haddock, saithe, plaice
and Norway haddock.
In order to convey an idea of the real position as we find it
today it may be useful to quote some figures. In 1936 the Icelandic
fishing fleet consisted of 38 steam trawlers (with a capacity of
13,091 reg. tons), 30 steam boats for long-line fishing (capacity
3,638 reg. tons) and 286 motor vessels larger than 12 reg. tons
(capacity 7,006 reg. tons). In addition we have 714 smaller motor
boats, open or decked. Thus the tonnage of all Icelandic fishing
vessels exceeding 12 tons was 23,735 gross reg. tons, and the
number of vessels 354.
Like all great fisheries those of Iceland are subject to consider-
able fluctuations. ¥e must therefore select a year which may be
termed a normal year, taken as a whole for all the fisheries, in
order to illustrate the present situation, and for this purpose I
think the years 1930 will suit us. Here we must point out that Ice-
land, with its 116,000 inhabitants, is one of the greatest fishing
nations in Europe, and this in spite of the fact that only one-fifth
of the nation is directly connected with the fisheries. Taking the
yield of the greatest fishing countries of Europe in 1930 we com-
mence with the Norwegians whose output that year was 1,132,000
tons; then follow the English with 800,000 tons; then the Ger-
mans with 355,000 tons, and as the fourth, little Iceland with
352,000 tons. In order to obtain a better understanding of the
relative importance of the fisheries for the different nations we
may calculate how many kilos of fish per head of the population
each nation caught. ¥e find that in 1930 Sweden had 15 kilos
and the Danes 25 kilos, the Norwegians 396 kilos and the Ice-
landers more than 3000 kilos per head.
At present we find eleven foreign nations fishing in Icelandic
waters, the English and the Germans being by far the most im-
portant. In spite of all these rivals the Icelanders themselves take
yearly about one half of the fish caught in Icelandic waters, and
much more than any other country takes in a year.