Icelandic Fishing Industry Suffers from a Split Personality – December 6, 2012

Its fisheries quota is an international model, but the country continues to engage in commercial whaling

When the banking system and real estate market in Iceland melted down in 2008, the tiny Nordic country was able to fall back on the natural resource that has sustained its people and its economy for centuries: fishing.

Photo by Flickr user LinagretteUntil 2011, Iceland was catching more than 100 endangered fin whales per year. The meat is sold
primarily to Japan.

Fishing, mostly of cod, herring and mackerel, accounts for a quarter of the island nation’s GDP.  The Icelanders guard their territorial waters closely (one reason for a current trade spat with the EU) and they take special care to ensure that… more

by: Jim W. Harper

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