Fiskimarkið

Abstract

In the present paper is given a short survey of the history of fishery limits, with special reference to the fishery limits of the Faeroe Islands. The author then proceeds to discuss the validity under international law of the new Faeroese fishery limit which came into force on March 12, 1964. 

In the historical context a fundamental difference in the traditional views held by the European countries on the coastal fisheries, is underlined. It is a welhknown fact that the coastal fisheries in Europe from the middle ages up to the 17th century — when the concept of the regime of the territorial sea was developed — were as a general rule free for everybody to take part in, natives and foreigners alike. This was the case, for instance, in England and Denmark. The general rule had, however, some significant exceptions, in which cases the coastal fisheries had, as far back as we know, been reserved for the coastal
populations. These exceptions were Norway and the Norwegian settle» ments in the Atlantic ocean, Scotland, and the Scottish isles. In these regions the fisheries were of quite another importance to the population than in the rest of the European countries As the Norwegian author, Dr. Arnold Ræstad, puts it: 'The sea was to the Norwegians, the Ice» landers, and the Scots the daily life and the daily bread'.

During the United Nations conference in 1958 on the law of the sea, the fact emerged that the Faroese people today, as far as the economic importance of sea fisheries is concerned, take up a singular position among the nations. According to an F. A. O. report, produced during this conference, on 'The Economic Importance of the Sea Fisheries in Different Countries', the sea fishery landings in the Faroe Islands in 1956 had a total weight of 116,000 tons. This gave the islands with their population of only 32,000 a place in the group of countries and other territories, 34 in all, each producing more than 100,000 tons of fish a year. In this group coastal states such as Greece, Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia were not to be found.

Furthermore, the Faroese catch in 1956 amounted to 3.5 tons per inhabitant, which was the highest figure of its kind in the report. In the total exports of the islands in the years 1952—1956 the fishery products occupied a share varying from 95 up to 99 per cent. The terrestrial resources of the Faroe Islands are meagre in the extreme. Throughout the centuries the resources of the Faroese fishing grounds have been to the islanders what the terrestrial resources have been to other nations. It is an old and still valid saying in the islands that 'the Faroe man has his foodsstore in the sea'.

In the course of the 17th century the exclusive fishing rights of the Faroese were recognised on an international level. Following a coms plaint from the Faroese against Scottish fishermen, James the First and the Scottish Privy Council in 1618 issued a proclamation forbidding Scottish fishermen to fish within sight of land of the Faroe Islands.

Up to the middle of the 19th century Danish men=ofswar on inspection tours in the North Atlantic had instructions to protect a 16-mile fishery limit off the Faroe Islands and Iceland. In the last decade of the 19th century the first foreign steam«trawlers
appeared in Faroese and Icelandic waters. In his book The sovereignty of the sea, T. W. Fulton gives the information that the catches of these trawlers were enormous. The reaction of the local population is expressed in a report from the 'Løgting' of the Faroe Islands in 1898: ' . . . The procedure of the trawlers is most rational. Some ten ships gather side by side with just so much space between them that their gear does not collide. They are then trawling in the same direction, all of them . . . In the early summer the prospects of a good catch of haddock in the waters north of the islands were promising; but this fishery has failed totally as a result of the activity of the trawlers . . . The summer fishery has miscarried . . . and it is to be feared
that next year's fishery has been destroyed too . . . '.

In 1901 the Faroese fishery limit according to a convention between Great Britain and Denmark was fixed at 3 miles. According to a convention from 1955 this limit got certain local extensions (see map).

In 1959 Great Britain and Denmark agreed upon a Faroese fishery limit of 12 miles in relation to other countries than Great Britain, and 6 miles with certain extensions in relation to Great Britain (see map). According to a convention in 1961 between Great Britain and Iceland, Great Britain has recognised that Iceland has a fishery limit of 12 miles measured from straight baselines. As far as Great Britain is concerned, this limit came into full force on March 12, 1964. Denmark has unilaterally decided that the Faroese fishery limit from the same day is 12 miles measured from straight baselines drawn around the
islands as a whole (see map). This decision was not made till Denmark had tried in vain to get an agreement with Great Britain similar to the one between Iceland and Great Britain.

During the Geneva conferences on the law of the sea much sympathetic attention was given to the case of the isolated islands in the North Atlantic, where the fisheries are the only staple industry. On the 1958 conference a resolution was passed, dealing with these special cases (see appendix). But no provision of special fishery limits in these cases was agreed upon.

De lege lata it is not warranted to establish a special Faroese fishery limit on grounds of necessity or similar criteria. The author, however, defends the opinion that the new Faroese limit is not contrary to the general rules of international law. He makes the allegation that the validity as to non=signatory states of the 12 miles fishery limit, recently agreed upon in London by most of the states of Western Europe, presupposes that a territorial limit of 12 miles is not contrary to international law, as the justification of a unilaterally fixed fishery limit is to be found in the assumption that the coastal state has a right to a territorial limit of the same extension, a right which it arbitrarily chooses to use in regard to fisheries only. The validity of the straight baselines, drawn around the Faroe Islands as a whole, the author bases upon an analogy from article 4 in the convention on the territorial sea and the contiguous zone, adopted by the 1958 Geneva conference on the law of the sea. He contends that the baselines do not to any appreciable extent depart from the general direction of the Faroese coastline (article 4, section 2), and that the 60 mile-long baseline to the east is justified by the traditional and unique importance of the coastal fisheries to the habitability of the islands (article 4, section 4).