Hanus Hansen, owner of JFK, is very dissatisfied with the new reform of national fisheries management that was passed in the Faroese parliament on 12 December 2017.
In an interview with local newspaper Norðlýsið, Hanus Hansen claims that the members of the parliament do not know what they have passed through.
He also points out that one of his trawlers – Sjúrðaberg or Gadus – will be sold as soon as the right offer comes in.
– The Barents Sea quota has been decreased to 27.000 tonnes, a 9.4% decrease. Then 15% of the quotas will be publically auctioned. JFKs quota will be around 9.100 tonnes. In 2015, Gadus caught 9.300 tonnes – and a little bit less in 2016 and 2017. JFK has no problems catching these tonnes so the first thing that will happen is that one of the trawlers will be sold, Hansen states.
The most important element in the fisheries legislation reform is the implementation of open public quota auctions. 15% of the overall quotas for mackerel and herring and 25% of the overall quotas for blue whiting will be publically auctioned, as will 15% of the overall Faroese quota for demersal fisheries in other (non-Faroese) waters. Additionally, quotas for these species, which exceed certain quota levels in the future, will be auctioned off entirely.
JFK emphasizes on its web-page that it ”holds a cornerstone position in the history of the development of the Faroese fishing industry from small and simple fishing vessels in the early 1900s to modern fishing trawlers, high-tech fish factories, and international sales channels today. The track record shows that JFK has the capacity and capability to serve global markets with high quality fish products”.
Sjúrðaberg and Gadus have spent 80 million DKK on wages over the past 3-4 years.
Image credits: Kringvarp Føroya (kvf.fo)
