A media report states that Canada’s decision to close its fishing ports to Danish flagged trawlers receives harsh criticism from Faroe Islands. This hard decision was taken in a continuing dispute over fish quotas and territorial claims. The ban mainly affects boats from the Faroes and Greenland which, although partly independent, fly the Danish flag because Copenhagen looks after their defence and foreign policy interests.
The main dispute is over the ownership of Hans Island, a tiny uninhabited atoll between Canada and Greenland and, more importantly over Denmark’s decision to set itself a 3,100 tonne shrimp quota in a section of the sea known as “3L”. But Jørgen Niclasen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Faroe Islands, said that Canada ‘s decision will not help resolve the long-standing issue of shrimp allocation, which needs to be dealt with multilaterally in NAFO (North Atlantic Fisheries Organisation).
Minister Niclasen made it clear that the Faroe Islands and Greenland will continue to work in good faith to resolve the matter within NAFO. He describes the ban as an “inconvenience”. He said that the Faroe Islands and Greenland were not willing to accept a management measure for 3L shrimp which other NAFO Parties, including Canada, have also admitted is less than satisfactory.
