Drei Reisen nach Island: deutsche Fischereischutzboote in isländischen Gewässern

Abstract

"German fishery protection vessels have been in operation in the waters off Iceland since 1903. On the basis of three travel accounts - of 1904, the second half of the 1920s and 1997 - the article describes the gradual transformation of the tasks carried out by these ships. The primary task of the ZIETEN (I), a fishery guard-ship of the early years, was the investigation of new fishing grounds, and its journeys to Iceland were carried out above all for the purpose of taking hydrographic surveys. By the 1920s, however, these functions had already changed substantially. The account of a journey taken by the guard-ship ZIETEN (II) revolves to a large extent around assistance of all kinds provided to the fishing boats and crews. Technical, medical and nautical support was provided in order to ensure that the steamers could operate as efficiently as possible. A special aspect of the guard-ship’s service off Iceland was the provision of aid in the case of disputes over fishing on the borders to the Icelandic fishing zones. Fishery protection vessels like the ZIETEN (II), whose nautical equipment was far superior to that of the fishing steamers, often helped to allay accusations by the Icelandic authorities that German fishing vessels had fished within the prohibited zone. Following the disputes with Iceland over the expansion of the fishing zone to 200 nautical miles, the Icelandic waters were no longer a real area of operation, neither for the German fishing boats nor, accordingly, for the German protection vessels. When, for example, the fishery guard-ship MEERKATZE (III) left the Reykjavik harbour on September 30, 1997, it had stopped there merely to take on supplies for a trip to the area south of Greenland. On the fishing grounds within the Icelandic zone it no longer fulfilled fishery protection functions in the strict sense. Thus the history of German fishery protection off Iceland reflects that of German deep-sea fishing there in general. Icelandic fishing was a venture which had its tentative and in many respects experimental and uncertain beginnings at the end of the nineteenth/ beginning of the twentieth century. This phase was followed by one in which the Icelandic grounds were among the most important for the German fishing industry. Finally, after the expansion of the territorial waters to 200 sea miles, fishing activities as well as fishery protection in this area came under Icelandic flag." (author's abstract)