Evening star., 1958-09-21
BY EDWARD SYMONDS
Special Writer for The Star

Special Writer for The Star
Behind the ugly and rather
absurd international squabble be-
tween Great Britain and Iceland
over fishing rights are two factors
Of contrasting simplicity and COM
plexity.
On the one hand we have in
volved a way of life, an English
fisherman's, one of the last of the
great unchanged occupations in
a world of mechanics and tech
nology.
On the other, a web of economic
problems which transcend in size
the fish of the sea they actually
involve.
The controversy over the fishing
rights has threatened to disrupt
British-Icelandic relations and
even to impose a strain upon
NATO itself. Near-violence came
in some ship boardings by the
Icelandic officials, but actual
trouble was avoided.
For the firSt-or human--ele-
ment. take Capt. Toby Taylor of
the British trawler Arctic Star"
He operates out of Hull, center
Of Britain's deep sea fishing in
dustry. I went on a 26-day voyage
with him and his Is crew members
recently to the White Sea, north
west of Siberia. The nearest good
fishing grounds are anything from
three to seven days sailing time
away from British ports.
Once arrived at the grounds, a
huge stocking-shaped net is
dragged along the bed of the ocean
for every hour i'm the "a hours of
the day. The catch can be cod,
haddock, plaice and even halibut.
Or it can be the worthless soldier
fish, Spiny and bloated and bright
red. Occasionally you get a sand
shark 10 to Is feet long. The fish
are piled. as they come from the
ocean bed. into cleaning heaps on
the windsWept deck.
The Crews Hard Life
1t is a job that never relaxeS.
Working in continuous daylight
dn winter in continuous night
the crew takes it in turns to man
the machinery, pack the fish and
sleep.
Everything depends on catching
enough fish. and the right kind of
fish, during the two weeks or so
that can be spent at the distant
fishing grounds. Delays longer
than that bring the risk that the
catch. cleaned and light-frozen in
broken ice, will be unsaleable by
the time it reaches port.
Over the years this race against
time has been getting harder. Be-
fore World War l the Dogger
Bank, only some 300 miles away
in the North Sea, seemed to have
unlimited resources. Later the
trawlerS began to feel their way
to the Norwegian coast and to
Iceland, and later still to Green
land and the White Sea, 1000
miles or more away. AS the
farthest deeps were plumbed the
ships got larger and more ex-
pensive, the journey home longer,
the weather worse. Iceland, some
800 miles away but still the nearest
of these distant water fishing
areas, began to supply nearly half
the catch of Birtain's trawler
fleet.
The 12-mile fishing limit i'm
posed around Iceland at the begin
ming of this month is not the first
effort to curtail the activities of
modern trawler fleets fishing in
offshore waters.
Norway had already extended
its claim from the traditional
three miles to four. Russia (and
now Communist China is follow
ing the lead) had pushed its
borders out to IL miles.
Fear New CIoims
Iceland had taken to drawing
the line from cape to cape in
stead of following the coast, thus
stalking a claim to large, prolific
bays many miles from land. This
postwar record is not encouraging.
And the trawlermen fear that the
new Icelandic claim will soon be
copied by other countries adjoin-
ing the fishing grounds. Since 400
fathoms is about the greatest
depth at which fish can eco
nomically be caught, they foresee
a time when all the workable areas
except a few remote banks will be
out of bounds.
With this specter haunting it.
the British Trawlers' Federation
denounced the new restrictions
NIT fNt-xxard hv fha TeaIoydove