The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976 - University of Hull

production capacity of all the fish factories in the Faroe Islands was fully
sufficient for an annual supply of raw material of above 400,000 tons.
Total catches around the Faroes have never reached more than 120,000
tons.
The basis of the resources for the fish factories in the 1970s and 1980s
was mostly home fishing. The general shift of the fishing zones to 200
miles—this happened in the Faroes on 1 January 1977—brought with it a
reduction of the unlimited fishing of the Faroese in the North Atlantic,
and more and more fishing vessels, including large trawlers, had to fish
in the local Faroese waters, which in the beginning meant that the supply
of raw fish for the fish factories was good. In other words, at the same
time as the means of production expanded, the basis of the fishing
resources grew smaller due to the expansion of other countries’ fishing
zones and the growing quota regulations. The result was that the Faroese
started to deplete their own resources.
In itself, the concept of village development was sound and could
have been realized, if it had not been so tightly connected with a
disastrous technological fixation and extreme capitalization of the whole
production process. The many different subsidies have also given a false
sense of security, and they were also a direct incitement for further
investment.
In addition to a number of companies with fewer owners, new forms
of ownership came into existence. These involved trade unions, local and
central authorities, and private interests. There was nothing wrong in this
of course; on the contrary, it strengthened the internal relationships of the
village. Somehow the production apparatus became an integrated part of
local emotions, something with which everybody in the village could
identify. It became the flesh and the pulse of the village. People refused
therefore to give up, and they were determined to start all over again if
the fish factory ran into economic difficulties.
The interests of Faroese society were intertwined in a complicated
network, in which it was difficult for critical voices to get attention, and
there was also the fact that the Faroe Islands were not the well-defined
economic zone which some people may have imagined. The Faroes were
an attractive market for Danish, Norwegian and other countries' financial
interests. Danish building societies and other financial institutions did
not see any danger in pumping a lot of money into businesses in the
Faroes, including the fish factories. Neither did the shipyards in Norway
and elsewhere have any problems in getting loans for the building of
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