Britain and Iceland go to war

[STEED]

Well then lets not hang around.

The European Union could impose trade sanctions against Iceland or stop its ships from entering EU ports in an emerging "mackerel war".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...l-2049099.html

[UnderseaLcpl]

By contrast, the EU Common Fisheries Policy, which Britain joined on its accession to the Common Market in 1973 – is considered to have been a disaster. A third of all fish are thrown back dead from boats, either because they are the wrong species, a legal but imperfect size, or the quota has already been met.

As a result, cod in the North Sea has plunged to 3 per cent of its natural abundance, despite a recent recovery. And much of the cod sold in Britain now comes from Iceland.

So this is the source of all this contention? Trade protectionism that made an industry uncompetitive so now it wants more trade protectionism? Sounds about par for the course for Britain.

[NeonSamurai]

Looks more like environmental concerns when one country is overfishing beyond what scientists believe the stocks can handle.

The rising tension follows Iceland's unilateral decision to catch three times as much mackerel this year as the EU considers reasonable, prompting a similar move by the Danish-owned Faroe Islands. Together with the amounts traditionally taken by the EU and Norway, the quotas would exceed the sustainable catch by a third and threaten a success story in European fishing, which has been dogged by political dithering and national self-interest.

This doesn't mean though that the EU policy isn't stupid when it comes to throwing over dead fish that were caught but not the right species.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by NeonSamurai

Looks more like environmental concerns when one country is overfishing beyond what scientists believe the stocks can handle.



This doesn't mean though that the EU policy isn't stupid when it comes to throwing over dead fish that were caught but not the right species.

I see those as one and the same. Environmental concerns are often a smokescreen thrown up to disguise some other agenda. EU policy mandates waste through regulation and quotas, British fisheries become uncompetitive due to overfishing, sudden;y the environment is a concern so the EU must do something about it.

I would also venture that there is probably a subsidy at work in this fishing industry, and because subsidies create a lack of incentive to innovate or economize, British fisheries are probably less competitive to begin with. Iceland may have subsidies, too, but thay may be better-implemented.

[jumpy]

No mention in that article about how the fish quotas are sold/traded in british central fishmarkets?
Not sure how true that is, but I did see a program recently that was talking about the fishing industry in UK. What we lost in fishing fleets was regained in having a central trading market for the fishing catch? Or something to that effect anyway. It must be more complicated.

[Task Force]

Careful, make them too angry and they will use the volcano on you again...

[Sailor Steve]

I predict Britain will win. The only threat Iceland can make is to withold all the ice, which won't work because the Brits like their beer warm anyway.

[eysi]

Hello. I am from iceland and i have to disagree. We icelanders are stuck in a hells circle. We have no money to pay out loans, the goverment rises taxes, more unemployed, less ppl pay taxes and everything in icelanf is ****ed up. We are trying our best but the goverment has nothing to work with so we cant pay icesave.

Please get this message forward

[Lord Justice]

Originally Posted by STEED

Well then lets not hang around.

Class