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

– it was a considerable obstacle to a prosperous fishery at Greenland that the fishing
vessels had to fish solely in international waters since the banks and so the fish were
often situated inside the territorial limit; likewise the hard weather was a serious
hindrance to any fishing as it was frustrating that the small sailing vessels were
allowed neither to seek shelter in the easier water inside the skerries nor to fish there;
– the protectionist line was acceptable concerning modern steam-trawlers; they
should be excluded from any fishery in the skerries and in the sea-territory;
– bait was also a problem, especially angmagssak (lodde, capelin) which appeared in
some abundance in the skerries and ought to be available to the fishermen; finally
– it was essential that the Faroese should be allowed to fish with handlines near the
coast from smaller boats situated at the landbases. This was similar to the way many
Faroese fishermen in the season had their smaller boats transported to and from the
shores of Iceland aboard larger vessels. 158
Extension of the Greenland Fishery by Law, 1927
Naturally the Faroese were not satisfied with the very limited
concessions in the letter from the Home Office of February 1926. The
public debate on the islands and the political considerations were
summed up by the Lagting in their report on the matter during the
autumn of 1926. The Faroese had not obtained the right to fish in the
Greenlandic territorial sea. They had only been given access to one
permanent land station, and not a very well situated one (Ravns Storø),
instead of the five they had requested. The skerries had not been opened
for inshore handline fishing and no one had seen anything of the new and
better charts of the Greenlandic waters.
In accordance with its former argument the Lagting considered ‘Tre
Brødre Havn’ (Sermilik) and ‘Hollænderhavn’ were far better situated,
only 12-20 nautical miles from the promising banks and in easier waters.
The skippers fishing up there in1926 had been questioned and only four
out of 13 vessels had used the facilities at Ravns Storø while 12 out of the
13 ships had returned with a full hold. Beyond any doubt the fishery off
West Greenland had proved its potential. The general public and all the
parties in the Lagting were united in their clamour for a broadening of the
Faroese fishery off Greenland. With many annexes the Lagting issued an
urgent address to the government as follows:
158 The deliberations and the committee reports of the Lagting of 19 September 1925
along with the shorter proposals to the Government of 28 October 1925, in
Lagtingstidende, Annex (bilag) 19, 1-3. The response of 11 February 1926 from the
Ministery of the Interior (Home Office) is printed in the Lagtingstidende, 1925, 139-42,
which includes a summary of the permissions and regulations for the utilization of the
land station on Ravns Storø.
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