Storm batters trawlers afraid of shelter

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33060, 30 October 1972, Page 15

Storm batters trawlers afraid of shelter

(N Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright?

REYKJAVIK, Oct. 29. A storm raging off Iceland’s western and northern coasts since Friday night has been battering a fleet of about 30 British trawlers, sending at least three seeking shelter under the Icelandic coast.

But the bulk of the fleet—classed as violators of Icelandic laws by fishing within Iceland’s unilaterally imposed 50-mile fishing limit—is reluctant to seek shelter for fear of arrest and has stayed on the open sea in what have been described as terrible conditions.

Britain and West Germany say that Iceland’s extension of its fishing limits from 12 to 50 miles is a violation of international law and British trawlers have continued to fish inside the extended limits.

Fishermen in Isafjord, the main port in Iceland’s northwest district, said today that all Icelandic boats put in to shore when the storm began last night. “This morning must have been terrible for the British trawlermen, because there

was a real tempest,” one local fisherman said.

"The only thing that saved them was that there was no freezing. If there had been freezing the whole fleet might have been in very great danger of perishing,” he added.

The 691-ton Hull-based trawler Kingston Pearl was tonight heading for the safety of Isafjord after sending a distress signal to the Icelandic authorities reporting that she had sprung a leak and requesting permission to enter the port. A Coast Guard spokesman said that in spite of the numerous violations of the fishing limits by the Kingston Pearl, immediate permission was granted because it was a matter of life and death. The trawler was also advised that no action would be taken to arrest it.

A second trawler, the 507ton Ross Khartoum, from Grimsby, was also given permission to seek shelter on the Icelandic coast after it appealed to the authorities that it needed 18 hours to repair its engines. Last night the fleetwood trawler Boston Kestrel sailed into Isafjord Bay to transfer an injured crewman to the British support ship Othello.

The Icelandic authorities gave permission for the two vessels to carry out the transfer within Icelandic territorial waters.

The Secretary of Iceland’s Foreign Ministry (Mr Petur Thorsteinsson) said today: “It has now become apparent that it is impossible to fish on Icelandic banks in winter time without the help of shelter and other aid from Icelanders.” He said that British trawlermen, who recently have shown such impudence towards Icelanders were now turning modest when they needed Icelanders’ help.

Apart from the Kingston Pearl and the Ross Khartoum it is not known what damage, if any, has been sustained r>y the other British trawlers in the raging storm, with winds up to force 12—hurricaneforce on the Beaufort scale — and 20ft to 30ft waves. Icelandic fishermen in Isafjord said that previously when similar storms hit the area foreign trawlers headed for Graenahlid —the traditional sheltering place m Isafjord Bay, 14 miles north of the port. But last night the patrol vessel Tyr, anchored there, the fishermen said, deterring British vessels from sheltering in the area.