Seafood Industry Reels from Iceland Crisis

For Glen Cooke, the near-collapse and then nationalization of Iceland's second-largest bank wasn't just an interesting tidbit on the evening news, reports the Business Journal.

According to the news agency, the stunning turn of events Monday as Iceland came close to national bankruptcy was a much bigger and more personal concern.

"The big impact that people probably are not aware of is that these Icelandic banks, Glitiner and Landsbanki, both those banks (finance) a lot of Atlantic Canadian seafood companies," said the chief executive officer of Black's Harbour-based Cooke Aquaculture Inc. on Tuesday.

"Glitiner has a very small piece of Cooke," he said. "These Icelandic banks they're banking a lot of firms - Clearwater Fine Foods, they're part of the syndication in Connors Brothers, they back the Barrett Group out of Newfoundland."

Cooke said the Iceland banks had worked hard to establish themselves as the financiers for the world's seafood industry.