Trawlers

In the period from 1904 until 1917, motor-boat operations were generally successful, but after 1920 conditions worsened, due to falling prices of fish, and difficulty in selling saltfish and salted herring abroad. Exports and marketing were in a state of disorganization, as the Icelanders were novices in these fields. The Icelandic króna was devalued in 1925, and this had a disastrous effect, leading to accumulation of debt, and to bankruptcies. The years 1927 to 1929 were more favourable, but then the Great Depression struck. Yet again, prices fell and sales were slow, and now Iceland’s trading partners introduced customs barriers and bilateral equal-trade agreements. A public enquiry into the state of the fishery revealed that at the end 1932 the sector’s debts amounted to 81. 9% of assets. In 1935 the government founded a credit fund for motor-boat owners, whose principal purpose was to loan money to vessel operators to help them restructure their debt. While this was helpful to vessel owners, the fisheries sector did not recover until the Second World War, when the business environment for the fisheries dramatically improved.

Steam-trawling in Icelandic waters was commenced by British vessels in the last decade of the 19^th century and soon more European fishing nations followed suit, especially the Germans and the Dutch. Steam-trawler operation in Iceland was started by an English merchant in 1899 but the first Icelandic-owned trawler arrived in 1905. During the next few years, the number of Icelandic steam-trawlers rose rapidly. They were 10 in 1911 and 20 in 1917. In that year half the fleet was sold to France but renovation started almost immediately after the First World War and was very rapid. In 1920 a total of 28 steam-trawlers were operated out of Iceland, 47 in 1925 and 40 in 1930. After that the number of vessels fell somewhat and during the 1930s they were 37 or 38.

The steam-trawlers were an addition to the fisheries of old, but unlike the motor-boats, their operation in the period before the Second World War was mostly confined to the Faxaflói Bay; ports of Reykjavík and Hafnarfjörður and in the West Fjords; Ísafjörður and Patreksfjörður . During the first period the trawlers´ catches were often huge. In 1911 their total catch in demersal species was 12,900 tons, 28,600 tons in 1915 and 33,500 tons in 1916. After that the catches decreased somewhat, but increased again with the arrival of new vessels. In 1921 the total catch in demersal species was 48,800 tons, peaking in 1925 when it reached 135,400 tons. In that year the trawlers fished 56.4% of the total Icelandic catch. During the 1930´s the catches fell due to reduced fishing effort and the Depression. Like the motor-boat fishery, the trawler operation was badly hit by the Depression and difficulties in selling fish products on foreign markets. In those years saltfish and salted herring were the main export commodities, but the first steps towards quick-freezing of fish were being taken.

Jón Þ. Þór - University of Akureyri