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

The Greenland Fishery before 1914
Since the Viking Age the inhabitants of the 17 populated Faroese Islands
have lived in a mixed self-sufficient economy of cattle and sheep
farming on the one hand and coastal fishery with some whaling and
fowling on the other. From the 1880s, with a turning point around 1900,
the fishery became the dominant economic sector, and at the same time
finally brought the Islands within the orbit of the fluctuating, modern
world market.
Up to the 1960s Faroese fishery technology was constantly behind the
more advanced British trawlers and gear. In the late nineteenth century,
when the UK fishermen invested in modern steam trawlers, the Faroese
bought the old sloop and smack sailing vessels from the Shetlanders and
the Scots, and after the Second World War the Faroese bought outdated
steam trawlers there instead of investing in modern diesel-engine
trawlers. 126
While British steam trawlers overfished the nearby rich grounds of
Færø Bank, Bill Bailey Bank and Lousy Bank from 1880 to 1939 and
physically drew the small Faroese vessels away, the smacks of the
Islands tried their luck off Iceland with hand line and long line. A few
fishing vessels sailed further, to Newfoundland and elsewhere, but much
of the Faroese deep-sea fishery up to the First World War was
concentrated in the coastal waters of Iceland. The increasing
international fishery, with steam and motor trawlers off Iceland after
1920, was a real menace to the traditional Faroese—as well as to the
Icelandic—fishery in these waters.
In the 1918 independence treaty between Denmark and Iceland,
Denmark had secured Faroese fishing rights in Icelandic waters for a
time, and a counter clause opened up Greenlandic waters a little for
Icelandic fishing. 127
126 For the Faroese transition from an agricultural to a fishing society see J. P. Joensen’s
article here and his book, Folk og fisk, 1985. The Danish abolition of foreign and Danish
(including Faroese, Icelandic and Norwegian) intrusion and catching in Greenlandic
waters and coastal areas dates back to a royal charter of 1776 which was the basis for the
protectionistic policy of the departments and ministeries in Copenhagen until a new
statute was passed in 1925.
The authors express their sincere thanks to Sidsel Wåhlin for help with the
manuscript.
127 Document from the Ministry of the Interior, 11 February 1926, printed in
‘Grønlandsmál’, 3, Lagtingstidende, 1938.
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