Fish Story

Norwegians care little how the herring ends its days, be it Matjes, marinated, soaked in sour cream, smoked, baked or fried. But they cannot abide it poached. Like others before them (Britons, Icelanders, Germans), Russia's herring fleet made this discovery the hard way last week.

After first ascertaining that the Norwegian fishermen were in port, in keeping with the Norwegian law which forbids fishing on Sundays, a fleet of some 60 Soviet boats followed a shoal of herring inside Norway's four-mile limit and let down their purse nets off Aalesund. A police cruiser sped out to chase the trespassers. When the Russian boat captains could not or would not understand, a shoal of small warships of the Norwegian navy steamed out. Two Russian boats tried to get away; a machine gun sputtered, and the boats hove to. Norwegians climbed aboard four small boats and a larger storage ship, led them back to harbor under arrest for poaching.

The Russians were not cowed. The rest of the Soviet fleet moved in and dipped nets into Norwegian waters. The warships sped out again, fired a few more shots across Russian bows, steamed resolutely back to port with another 10 ships, including the 7,000-ton Tambov, the Soviet fleet's mother ship. While 800 Soviet crewmen--relieved to get ashore after being cooped up for four months aboard ship--loafed and chatted with the people of Aalesund, Norwegian authorities got two of the 15 skippers to admit they had been poaching, then fired off a strong protest to Moscow. Radio Moscow simply replied that Norway should release the Soviet fishing boats without delay.

The Norwegians in turn refused to be cowed. Aalesund authorities began court proceedings against the offending boats (usual punishment is confiscation of the catch and a stiff fine of approximately $14,000 per poaching boat). The Russians advised Oslo that it was all "a regrettable misunderstanding," said there had been no premeditated poaching, and appealed to Norway to release the 15 Soviet boats. Relieved Norwegians stopped looking for deep political motives beneath the Red herring chase. "I think it's just plain fish--nothing else," said an official.

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