University of Akureyri

After a day whale watching we went to the University of Akureyri to attend a lecture on fishing.

The university had over 2,000 students, but most of them attend classes through the internet. They come to class to attend exams. They live all over the country. For classes that require labs, they will come to the school and attend all of a semester’s worth in a few days. This way they can work in their home town as well as attend school.

There are two schools in Rekjavik, but only the one in Akureyri offers fishery science. Our lecturer came from Rekjavik but moved to study fishery science.

Iceland has a quota system for fishing in Icelandic waters. It evolved from the devastation that came from over fishing.

TAC is the total allowable catch within 200 nautical miles of shore. This is controlled by the ITQ – Individual Transfer Quota. In other words, the right to catch fish can be bought and sold. Because of the ITQ, many traditional fishing families have gone out of business while certain wealthy individuals have brought in some truly remarkable floating fish factories.

ITQ has proven sustainable and economic, but not socially positive. For instance, Iceland boast the worlds most technologically advanced fishing ships. The fish populations have rebounded beautifully from WWII lows. But wealth has concentrated in a few hands, leaving most Icelanders suffering.

ITQ shares are very expensive. As a result it is very hard to start a new fishing company. Most of the sales are between exiting companies with old companies buying one another out.

Originally fishing was done by people in small boats, often row boats. It didn’t change for 800 years because Iceland was isolated. From 1100 to 1900 foreign fishing fleets came in. In 1902 motorized boats came. During World War I and II Icelanders got serious about fishing for themselves. After WWII Iceland had a substantial fleet of it’s own. “The fish could not hide anymore.”

In 1952 Iceland pushed foreigners out of the fyords. Then they pushed even Icelandic trawlers out of the spawning grounds. In 1972 Iceland pushed to 50 miles out. In 1975 and 1976 they pushed to 200 miles (see map). This is enforced by their coast guard with a system of signalling equipment. The main groups pushed out were British.

The Herring Bonanza. 1958-1972 some very good spawning stocks produced enormous hauls -770,000 tons worth. After the WWII the ocean floor got higher so the herring could be seen. Girls would salt the fish as they were caught and a good time was had by all. Except the fish. In 1975 Iceland received a “Black Report.” This happened again in 1983 when technological improvements made it easy to over fish again. One stock was ruined, but with the limitations placed on fishing the other was saved and made a comeback.

Haddock, cod, and salmon are also important fish crops. Icelandic people mostly eat salmon.

Now many harbors have lost their significance, although Iceland still imports a fair amount of it’s food. The bank crash in the 1980’s had an impact. Now one ship will catch as many fish as what 350 small ships used to bring in. Most of the processing has become mechanized.

Towns have replaced it’s fishing industry with tourism, and aluminum factories. For instance, the town of Husavik invested in shrimp quotas then they market dropped out from under them and now they make money from whale watching instead. Now some small ships are allowed to fish for cod close to shore, and the harbor is coming back.