Útskrift úr Sjávarútvegsskóla Háskóla Sameinuðu þjóðanna
Útskrifaðir voru 23 nemendur í 8. árgangi Sjávarútvegsskóla Háskóla Sameinuðu þjóðanna, fimmtudaginn 23. febrúar 2006.
Dear fellows of the UNU-FTP, ladies and gentlemen
It is a great honour and privileged for me to have the opportunity to address you here on this important occasion. We certainly take pride in participating in the United Nations University Fisheries Training Programme and are most committed to its advancement. Since I entered office as a minister of fisheries I have often met many of you in the corridors of the building which houses the Ministry of fishing and as I run up and down the many stairs leading to my office. Although you are now graduating after a hard and definitely fruitful work I know that soon I will meet new and just as hard working students, hoping that they as well as you will experience a good time in this country.
The United Nations University Fisheries Training Programme is managed by the Marine Research Institute, in cooperation with the Icelandic Fisheries Laboratories, the University of Iceland and The University of Akureyri in northern Iceland. It is mainly financed through the Icelandic Government development cooperation budget.
There is a strong tradition for fishing and fish processing in Iceland. The productive waters around Iceland have made us what we are. But even if our waters are productive, they are not inexhaustible. Therefore we put great emphasis on how we manage our resources and utilize the fish we catch. It is perhaps then not surprising that when we started our development cooperation programme about a quarter of a century ago, this too reflected our preoccupation with fish and fisheries. As our development cooperation has grown, it has also diversified. Support to fisheries development projects however remains a strong feature of our involvement in development cooperation, and the UNU-FTP is an integral part of it.
Iceland was among the leading nations that fought for the extension of the EEZ of coastal states to 200 miles. This was vital to us and our independence, but it has also had considerable influence on many other coastal states, not least in the developing world. This is reflected in the fact that today, most of the fish and fish products exported come from developing countries, and some of the fellows here today are from leading fish producing and exporting countries. It is amongst others because of the growing importance of fisheries in many developing countries that the UNU found a need to establish a fisheries training programme and the UNU-FTP was established in Iceland just over eight years ago. The UNU realised that there was a need to offer practical advanced training to professionals from developing countries, and we realised that our participation would also strengthen our ability to contribute effectively in our bilateral and other multilateral fisheries projects.
Economic efficiency should be the fundamental base to fishing industry. Therefore I would like to mention our fisheries management system. As you probably know, here in Iceland we have developed a fisheries management system with individual transferable quotas (ITQ). The quotas represent shares in the total allowable catch and are allocated to fishing vessels. The management has three pillars. The general individual transferable quota system (ITQ), where permanent quota shares and annual catch quotas are divisible and transferable to other fishing vessels. Secondly the small vessels ITQ, and thirdly there are regional policy instruments.
The Icelandic fisheries management system was certainly controversial when it was established and has been one of the main contested issues of most parliamentary elections since 1984 in one way or another. Its main asset is certainly its economic efficiency. From my point of view transferable fishing rights are absolutely fundamental to any efficient fisheries management scheme, regardless of whether it is an effort based system or a quota system. The transferability is a driver for economic efficiency. But it can also have other impacts such as negative ones for smaller fishing communities. That should be acknowledged and not be overlooked. However these impacts should be mitigated by other targeted measures such as limited regional measures, promotion the use of certain gear, or a specific management system for parts of the fleet, along the lines that we have done. That certainly does not solve every problem everywhere. But that methodology will most probably do better in combining efficiency with regional policy, than an approach which sacrifices any goal of efficiency.
Most of our fish stocks are now almost fully utilized. Growth in the fisheries can therefore not be obtained through increased fishing effort. Progress in building up the fish stock remains an overriding policy objective of our government. We now put emphasis on getting more value out of the fish that we catch and on aquaculture. We have been rather successful in this, even though we have had to decrease the amount of the fish we take out of the sea, the total value has not decreased accordingly. Icelanders spend something like 30 million euros annually in assessment, research and innovation in fisheries. To that we can add what the fisheries companies put into development of new or more valuable products. This is a considerable amount for a nation counting 300 thousand people and is an indication of how important the fisheries are for us.
During the last decades we have gathered knowledge, experience, as well as high technical capacity in fisheries. People with very different types of education choose to work in the fisheries sector in Iceland. The complexity, the natural variability, and both the natural and economical environment make it a fascinating sector to be involved with. The fishing industry has to compete with other sectors for both people and financing and therefore always strives to increase the value it gets from the marine resources. I’m happy to say that we have had some success in this area. Hopefully you can contribute to your fishing industry and its economic efficiency.
In your work here you are dealing with problems and issues that are of particular importance in your work back home. At the same time it often has a wider implication. I have been looking at the website of the UNU-FTP and have seen the type of projects fellows of the UNU-FTP have been working on. I am impressed by the quality of work evident in many of these projects and there is no doubt in my mind that through your work, this programme also benefits our own research institutions. I have of course not seen any details of the work this particular group has been doing, but I know you have all been working very hard.
It is a lot to ask from you to stay away from friends and family for six months. I hope that your reward has made it worth your while and that each and every one of you has had a good and productive time here in Iceland and that you will have grown as professionals. I wish you a good trip back and thank you for the time you have spent with us.