One more year with fishing days

The system with fishing days will continue next year, Høgni Hoydal, the Minister of Fisheries, has announced ahead of today’s Parliamentary hearing.

Two bills are on the agenda: one about the quota system and one about the fishing days system.

A working group commissioned by the Ministry of Fisheries has been spending months preparing an administration plan for fishery in Faroese waters.

The marine resources Act states that the fishery industry should change from the current fishing days system to a quota system at the end of this year.

But this work has dragged on, and it is now too late to make any changes, which is why the fishing days system will continue for another year, according to Hoydal.

It is still unclear when the proposal to extend the fishing days system will be submitted to Parliament, but Hoydal is confident that he will receive the 17 signatures required to submit it.

One of the bills due for first reading today comes from the four opposition parties, who want to hold on to the fishing days system and scrap the quota system entirely.

The other bill, submitted by Framsókn’s two MPs, seeking to postpone the introduction of the quota system until 1 January 2020, was withdrawn last week. However, the bill was immediately resubmitted by Jørgen Niclassen, the leader of Fólkaflokkurin.

Translated by prosa.fo