Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1963, Page 131

Fiskimarkið
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regime of the territorial sea was developed — were as a general rule
free for everybody to take part in, natives and foreigners alike. This
was the case, for instance, in England and Denmark. The general rule
had, however, some significant exceptions, in which cases the coastal
fisheries had, as far back as we know, been reserved for the coastal
populations. These exceptions were Norway and the Norwegian settle*
ments in the Atlantic ocean, Scotland, and the Scottish isles. In these
regions the fisheries were of quite another importance to the population
than in the rest of the European countries As the Norwegian author,
Dr. Arnold Raestad, puts it: ’The sea was to the Norwegians, the Ice»
landers, and the Scots the daily life and the daily bread'.
During the United Nations conference in 1958 on the law of the
sea, the fact emerged that the Faroese people today, as far as the
economic importance of sea fisheries is concerned, take up a singular
position among the nations. According to an F. A. O. report, produced
during this conference, on ’The Economic Importance of the Sea
Fisheries in Different Countries’, the sea fishery landings in the Faroe
Islands in 1956 had a total weight of 116,000 tons. This gave the
islands with their population of only 32,000 a place in the group of
countries and other territories, 34 in all, each producing more than
100,000 tons of fish a year. In this group coastal states such as
Greece, Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia were not to be
found. Furthermore, the Faroese catch in 1956 amounted to 3.5 tons
per inhabitant, which was the highest figure of its kind in the report.
In the total exports of the islands in the years 1952—1956 the fishery
products occupied a share varying from 95 up to 99 per cent. The
terrestrial resources of the Faroe Islands are meagre in the extreme.
Throughout the centuries the resources of the Faroese fishing grounds
have been to the islanders what the terrestrial resources have been to
other nations. It is an old and still valid saying in the islands that
’the Faroe man has his food»store in the sea‘.
In the course of the 17th century the exclusive fishing rights of the
Faroese were recognised on an international level. Following a com>
plaint from the Faroese against Scottish fishermen, James the First and
the Scottish Privy Council in 1618 issued a proclamation forbidding
Scottish fishermen to fish within sight of land of the Faroe Islands.
Up to the middle of the 19th century Danish mensofswar on inspection
tours in the North Atlantic had instructions to protect a 16-mile
fishery limit off the Faroe Islands and Iceland.
In the last decade of the 19th century the first foreign steam«trawlers
appeared in Faroese and Icelandic waters. In his book The sovereignty
of the sea, T. W. Fulton gives the information that the catches of
these trawlers were enormous. The reaction of the local population is
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