The Lofoten Fishery

by Gro Røde

We wait for them, the fish and the fishermen, in January, every single year. Irrespective of occupation or business, in Lofoten, everyone is preoccupied with the winter fishery; with how things are going. This male-dominated occupation is observed with Argus-eyed vigilance by housewives, furniture salesmen, teachers and tax officers.
They all know that the greatest cod fishery in the world, forms the basis of all human settlement in the Lofotens.

Thousand Year Tradition
From January to April the fishermen are always at their posts in Lofoten, ready and waiting. In about 1120, King Øystein built "rorbu" cabins in Lofoten, where the fishermen could live and work. This was almost certainly because of the many visiting fishermen that came to the fishing villages during the Winter Season. Consequently, even more came. In such a way, the total catch increased, and the King gained greater income and more control over the wealth that was landed. Today, the fishermen, and this "commercial fishery", are thus integral parts of a thousand year old tradition. The fishermen do as their forefathers did, they catch tasty cod, full of fatty liver and nutritious roes.
 

The fish as a commodity is the same, the drying method is the same, but apart from this the methods used for fishing, production and sales have all changed.

Stone Age finds show that the people here harvested the seas using tackle like stone sinkers and hooks made of horn and bone. Nets were also used, but only in shallow waters. The deep sea haul was taken with hook and line – handlines. This continued for thousands of years, until way into the Middle Ages. In the history of the Lofoten Fishery, the tackle in use has been the focus of much turbulence. Being innovative on the seas of Lofoten has been no easy task. The fishermen were traditionally very sceptical to the use of new types of gear, saying that "the old ones are good enough". But more important was probably the fear of having to make new, substantial investments in an uncertain trade. Most of them had enough debt to begin with ...

Turbulence and Prohibition
We know that longlines were used in the Vestfjord in 1533, but it was not until 1580 that they became commonplace. The handliners quickly became frustrated, complaining that longlines ruined the fishing for them. There were no regulations on fishing, and lawlessness reigned: no rules for when the day’s fishing should begin, and no rules determining what tackle could be used. No wonder people were in despair. They asked the King for help, and were heard. In 1644, King Christian IV banned longlining. Gillnets were introduced to cod fishing in about 1750, and there was no lack of protest at that either. Consequently, nets were banned for a brief period of time. Only handlines were to be used, but then there were new protests, and the ban had to be lifted.

Indeed, neither making laws nor buying tackle were easy matters – you never knew what would be prohibited next winter. Should the winter season prove to be a bad one, then the new types of tackle were held to blame, and there was a great deal of confrontation in the fishing villages between handliners, longliners and gillnetters. Things went to and fro, bans were imposed and the same bans were lifted. In the 1770’s, both gillnets and the illegal longlines were in use. In 1786, both types of tackle were finally made legal, but conditions in the fishing villages were still a cause of great concern, with large numbers of strangers, few regulations, and a disturbingly high consumption of liquor and luxury commodities.

The Lofoten Act –Improved Order at Sea
In 1816, the Lofoten Act – Lofotloven – was passed. This act regulated the time when fishing could begin in the morning, and divided the seas off the shore of each fishing village into permanent areas for longlining and gillnetting. The landlords or publicans of each fishing village were made inspectors, making sure that everyone conformed to the new regulations. So now peace was finally supposed to reign in the fishing villages, since the fishermen were obliged to stick to their own fishing village, rent "rorbu" cabins there, and decide in advance what type of tackle they would be using. There was, however, great dissatisfaction with these arrangements. The law was too rigid, it was not adapted to the unpredictable ways of the fishery. The fish did not distribute themselves evenly among the fishing villages, sometimes they were here, sometimes there.
Being bound to one part of Lofoten where there were no fish was quite intolerable when people in other areas were hauling in the catch. Furthermore, the landlords, having attained considerable authority, had become landowners – like the British squires – and acted like minor sheriffs in each individual fishing village, running things as they pleased. Dissatisfaction was rife, both among the fishermen, the general public, and among the official class.

Free Waters – Free Fishing
In 1857 the strict regulations were finally lifted. An important figure in the implementation of this was government official Ketil Motzfeldt. The basic principles for fishing now became: free waters, free fishing, state inspection. The landlords, or squires, were removed from their office as inspectors, and the fishermen were given more influence and freedom – at least on paper. In reality, many fishermen were still tied to their fishing villages. The squires had lent them money to outfit their boats, and had allowed them credit when times were hard. The squires knew that the fishermen would be forced to turn to them, even though they offered poor prices for their fish. Those who were in debt had simply no choice. The freedom to set tackle wherever the fishermen pleased led once again to unrest and disturbance. Nets and longlines were often set too close, and were ruined.

Safety and Minimum Prices
With the advent of the motor boat, work at sea became both easier and safer. It was easier to follow the fish and it was easier to go where the best prices were paid. The year 1938 is very important in the history of the Norwegian fisheries: it was then that the Raw Fish Act came into force, ensuring the fishermen a fixed price for their fish. From now on, the fish buyers could no longer determine the value of the catch, this was left instead to the fishermen’s own organisation, the Raw Fish Sales Association. The fishermen were secured a minimum price and could once again hold their heads high.

Up until the Second World War, fish caught in Lofoten was either sold to the squire, or to buyer boats anchored up in the harbour. After the war, the buyer boats disappeared, but even so, the squires were no longer the only buyers – others had appeared on the scene. The 1950’s and 60’s were tough times for the old, well-established squire-owned businesses; they went bankrupt, one after the other. For the fishing village communities, this transition meant uncertain times – but also opened up new opportunities.

The Seas of Lofoten Today
Today, the seas of Lofoten are divided up into longline, gillnet and Danish seine areas during the winter fishery and it is the fishermen themselves who determine the divisions. The boats must remain strictly in their own areas. The handliners on the other hand, can fish wherever they please. Nets and longlines catch the most fish, but the handliners dominate in numbers. However, according to the fisheries inspectorate in Svolvær, the tendency is clear: Danish seiners are increasing year by year. The Danish seiners use a small trawl net, like a large sack, that is tightened around the fish. Many fishermen criticise the Danish seine, saying that it is worse for the fish resources than the purse seines that purged the seas in the 1950’s, before they were banned. Unrest and animosity between the users of the various types of fishing gear still occur, and the fishery inspectors of Lofoten have to patrol the waters off Lofoten throughout the season, to make sure that the borders between the different types of gear are observed.

Crisis and Optimism
Towards the end of the 1980’s, some local communities experienced a crisis after the Lofoten fishery had provided poor yields for a number of consecutive years. During the winter of 1995, however, things were once again looking up – the number of fishermen taking part was on the increase and the total catch was once again at an acceptable level. The fish kept to the more distant banks, though, and those who made money were the larger gillnetters and Danish seiners. The winter fishery was a disappointment for the smaller handliners, both in volume and income.

The Lofoten Fishery is culture and craftsmanship based on strong, long-standing and proud traditions. The Lofoten Fishery is competitiveness coupled with team work. It is long working days and worn out workers. It is hours spent at the most exhilarating, most dangerous and most beautiful place of work imaginable. It is elation at a major haul and sorrow over losses, purged seas and the fight for resources.