Fishing companies across Iceland have begun preparing for the cut in the cod quota for the next fishing season by making changes to their trawler fleet and reorganizing their operations.
“Fishing companies in all parts of the country will have to reduce the number of ships; it’s bound to happen. I’d like to call it self-defense,” managing director of ship operations at Samherji Kristján Vilhelmsson told Fréttabladid.
Andrés Gudmundsson, managing director of ship operations at Thorbjörn fiskanes hf., said his company had decided to cancel an investment in new ships after news of the quota cut.
“I guess we have to make further cuts to our operations and then we’ll see; hopefully people will realize their mistake and increase the quota again,” Gudmundsson said.
Thormódur rammi-Saeberg hf. received a new trawler yesterday, which is technically more advanced and less expensive to operate than the company’s older trawlers. It will purchase two other new trawlers in 2008 and 2009 and sell three older trawlers.
Click here to read about the cod quota cut.
