Fridrik J. Arngrímsson, managing director of the Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners (LÍÚ), said this week that he would like to send a marine research ship to Greenland to investigate the situation of the cod stock there.
Icelandic trawlers have caught a significant amount of cod off Greenland’s eastern shore recently, mbl.is reports.
Fridriksson said special permission is needed from Greenland for an Icelandic marine research ship to investigate the situation of the cod stock in Greenland’s waters, but claimed acquiring it would be easy since Greenland would also profit from the results.
However, the Iceland Marine Research Institute does not have a budget for such an expedition.
Arngrímsson stated it would cost less than ISK 20 million (USD 307,000, EUR 226,000) to fund it and pointed out that one of the Marine Research Institute’s ships is currently docked at the harbor and won’t be needed for anything else until after next month.
“So the Minister of Fisheries [Einar K. Gudfinnsson] should definitely try to get funding to finance this research,” Arngrímsson said.
