Iceland and Faroes agree mutual access deal

The lack of an agreement so far this year had been a source of concern to Iceland’s industry as much of the blue whiting fishery takes place in Faroese waters, and the agreement, which rolls over the 2018 agreement, gives mutual access to each others’ waters to fish blue whiting and Atlanto-Scandian herring.

Iceland gets access to 1300 tonnes of Faroese mackerel and the Faroese fleet gets 5600 tonnes of groundfish and up to 30,000 tonnes of capelin, if enough capelin is found for a quota to be allocated.

The agreement is for 2019 and 2020.

The two ministers agreed to continue to work on a framework agreement for fisheries co-operation and each has appointed experts to value the fishing rights and access that come under the agreement. This work is expected to be completed by mid-2020.