Following a late August 2005 decision of the Lögting (Faroe Parliament), the fishing days system was adjusted to allow for increased working flexibility and safety of fishermen. At the same time, the Faroese refused to take measures that would in any significant way reduce the fishing effort in the Faroe exclusive economic zone.
Conducting a ten-year evaluation of the management regime, the Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, Björn Kalsö, is expected to present an amendment package to the Commercial Fisheries Act during 2006. Acting on a preliminary proposal put forth by the minister, the Lögting decided to alter the current regulation by replacing the measurement of days at sea with a new principle of hours at sea, setting a 24-hour minimum count per fishing trip. The enactments reduced the fishing effort by less than one percent for the 2005-06 season, in addition to countering against a 5-percent increase in the fishing effort estimated to be effectuated by the change from days to hours at sea. Likewise covered were measures to safeguard the diversity of the fishing fleet, preventing fishing licenses to flow freely across vessel categories. Since the fishing days system was established there has been a total reduction of about 20 percent in the fishing effort.
The fishing days system, introduced in 1996 under the 1994 Commercial Fisheries Act, a so called effort based regulation, controls the fishing effort via input in terms of time at sea, rather than controlling the output through imposing quotas. The system divides the fishing fleet into a number of vessel categories, based on size and gear: pair trawlers, longliners, medium-size coastal vessels, coastal longliners, coastal trawlers, and small coastal vessels.
Supported by all industry organizations of the Faroes, the management regime has been credited not only for wholly preventing the problem of fish discards and untruthful reports, but also for striking a sound balance among ecological, social and economical interests.
With cod, haddock and saithe [pollock/coley] dominating the multi-species groundfish fisheries in the Faroese EEZ, the regulatory system aims at securing a sustainable level of fishing; besides controlling capacity and days at sea, the management regime regulates the commercial fisheries by tough gear and area restrictions.
Said Alfred Olsen, chairman of the Parliamentary Business Committee which fine-tuned Mr Kalsös proposal: The general idea behind the fishing days system was to create and maintain a long-term balance in the ecosystems as well as in the composition of the fishing fleet.
This balance, Mr Olsen said, had been somewhat upset over the past few years, with licenses crossing between vessel categories, stirring up discontent. With more fairly distributed allotments of fishing days reflecting a more accurate picture of todays fishing fleet, and with more clearly defined legislation to prevent unnecessary fluctuations in the immediate future, we have restored a very important balance.
When embarking on a fishing trip that will last a few hours beyond 24 hours, a fishing vessel, with regard to the regulation, will only have spent the actual number of hours at sea, e.g. 26 hours, whereas earlier the same trip would have been registered as two days at sea.
Said Hans Andrias Poulsen, skipper and main owner of coastal trawler Hansa Maria FD 747: This means now we can end a fishing trip whenever we need to, without feeling forced to prolong it just to fill out whatever number of hours required to complete the next 24-hour time span.
When the weather turns nasty in the middle of a fishing trip, you wont be punished for going to shore from now on; whereas the way it has been, it will make you inclined to stay out those extra hours because otherwise youd find it costing you unnecessarily in terms of fishing days.
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