It started half a dozen years ago when Faroese fishermen began to whisper there was a whole lot more mackerel in their waters than anyone wanted to admit. Then Icelandic boats started seeing small amounts of mackerel with their catches of summer herring. It’s difficult to imagine now that 10 years ago hardly anyone in Iceland had ever seen a mackerel, let alone stood on the beach and reeled them in to drop them straight on the barbecue.
For years mackerel had been a closely-guarded treasure trove for EU, Norwegian and Faroese fishermen, with illegal fishing stamped out, quotas tightly regulated and managed with brittle agreements between nations on how to make the most of what had become virtually swimming gold nuggets.
Iceland
