Decisión nº: 000637

In June 1996 the 1971 Fund Executive Committee considered the admissibility of a claim by a fish (mainly whelks) sales company located 160 km from the main whelk landing port affected by the fishing ban imposed by the United Kingdom Government. The Committee noted that the company bought whelks from fishermen and arranged for the whelks to be processed before exporting them, mainly to the far east. The Committee decided that the claim was admissible in principle since there was a reasonable degree of proximity between the contamination and the alleged loss in that, although the business operated some distance from the affected area, it was highly dependent on products from it and the business had made a significant contribution to the develpment of the infrastructure of the whelk fishery in the area.