The Icelandic Coast Guard (Landhelgisgæsla íslands)

Web site: www.lhg.is

The Icelandic Coast Guard is responsible for patrol and rescue operations in one of the toughest marine areas in the world, the North Atlantic Ocean. For the greater part of the year, a steady series of depressions cross the waters around Iceland on their way from North America to Europe, bringing heavy storms as well as dangerous ice floes during the winter. Considering that Iceland's fishing zone covers as large an area as France and West Germany combined, it is easy to imagine the problems involved in mounting winter searches for missing ships or aircraft.

A wide range of duties are entrusted to the Coast Guard. Among them are jurisdiction with sea and air patrols of Iceland's 200-mile exclusive economic zone and 12-mile territorial waters, and monitoring of fishing within the zone in consultation with the Marine Research Institute and Ministry of Fisheries. In addition to guarding the Icelandic EEZ, the Coast Guard performs surveillance and inspection duties in international areas, e.g. the NEAFC Regulatory Area which is the area outside the EEZ towards the SW, S and East of Iceland. The Coast Guard is also responsible for rescue operations in the Icelandic Search and Rescue Region which is an area of 1.9 million square kilometres, or more than twice the area of the EEZ.

The Coast Guard operates the Icelandic Maritime Traffic Service within its operations centre. This centre is a single point of contact for all maritime related notifications, involving, for example, the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre, the Vessel Monitoring Centre and the Fisheries Monitoring Centre.

All hydrographic surveys in Icelandic waters are undertaken by them, including the preparation of nautical charts. Coast Guard disposal squads are always called in to defuse bombs, depth charges or other dangerous articles which are washed ashore or entangled in the trawls of vessels fishing in Icelandic waters. They work in close cooperation with Iceland's Civil Defence Authority and Police Force.