It is observed that Icelanders earned a living from the sea, setting out in small boats to haul cod, haddock and herring from the North Atlantic waters. But in recent times these Vikings found new fish to catch, scooping up businesses around the world with the help of light financial regulation and turbocharged banks.
In the present economy crisis Iceland’s fishing industry is booming, with big catches and rising export prices thanks to the collapse of Iceland’s currency, the krona. Helgi Mar Sigurgeirsson, chief engineer of a fishing trawler moored in Reykjavik harbor, told that there was some banker who said we didn’t need the fishing industry. He added that the Icelander could make money with the banks.
Fishing has become national identity for Icelanders and that the country’s coins carry pictures of cod, crabs and capelin. Generations of Icelanders have harvested the rich fishing grounds around the volcanic island, where the warm Gulf Stream and cold Arctic waters meet. Iceland won the showdown, in part by threatening to kick NATO forces out of their base on the island, and has since gained international praise for managing its fishery sustainably while other countries have overfished their stocks to extinction.
Iceland’s fisheries minister, Einar Kristinn Gudfinnsson said that fishing-related industries always have been the backbone of our economy and with the economic crisis, in relative terms fisheries will grow in importance. Sigurdur Sverisson, spokesman for the Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners, told that they couldn’t keep them going without foreign labor because the Icelanders were too busy working in the banks.
