Norway's Brick Wall

Norwegian coastal salmon-netsmen.

Orri Vigfússon reports on the Norwegian government’s intransigence as it again fails to face the consequences of over-exploitation by coastal salmon-netsmen.

NORWAY HAS at last published the regulations that will govern this year’s netting of wild Atantic salmon at sea off its coast. The new rules were awaited with great hope but I am afraid they make gloomy reading for all with the future of Norway’s once-magnificent rivers at heart.

The majority of the nets that do the most harm will continue very much as before and the changes to the rules are mostly cosmetic. The commercial season in Southern and Eastern Norway is reduced by just 15 days. In some of the Rogaland areas, where netting took place from June 1 to July 15, the start will be delayed to July and end on August 4.

In Hordaland and Bergen district, no nets will be allowed but this makes virtually no difference to this man-made disaster area. The adverse effects of fish farming have already destroyed most wild salmon stocks, including that of the famous Vosso, a river that once produced the biggest salmon in the world. In Sogn and Fordane there are what appears to be significant netting reductions but that dreadful Baltic bug, Gyrodactylus salaris, has destroyed the legendary Laerdal stock, a river that once held the largest salmon population of all the rivers that run into this beautiful fjord.

Probably the most effective reductions are in the Trondheim area, but here private sector buyout agreements with most of the netsmen were brokered by NASF partners, Elvene rundt Trondheimfjord (www.elvene.no) three years ago. There have been dramatic improvements in spawning numbers but our efforts to persuade the Norwegian government that this initiative could be copied elsewhere fell on deaf ears. The Namsen nets will be allowed to operate between June 15 and August 4 while Nordland nets will be severely cut as most of the salmon stocks there are in seriously bad shape. The Troms nets will be cut down to three and four weeks respectively. This will benefit fish coming from the west and returning to famous rivers such as the Målselv and Alta. The worst result by far will be in Finnmark. Kile not (bag-nets) will operate from June 1 until August 4 and kro k garn (bend-nets) – the most destructve of all commercial methods – will be permitted to work from June 1 until July 15, the same as last year. The only help the government was prepared to give to the Finnmark rivers is a 25 per cent reduction in the weekly netting time. The fishery will operate on three days a week instead of four. Considering the severe lack of spawners in Finnmark, this is nothing like enough. NASF is convinced, after a rigorous evaluation of official statistics and ICES data, that wild Norwegian salmon stocks in recent decades have decreased from two million to 200,000, a 90 per cent reduction. We see the new rules as a mere symbolic exercise as stocks will continue to deteriorate in much of the country and at a faster rate than before. The severe problems facing the wild salmon have been addressed in only a very few areas. I remember meeting the salmon staff of the Norwegian Ministry of Environment in November 1993 and presenting a solid restoration plan with fair compensation to netsmen. In 1999, when Norway’s Royal Commission was presenting a national salmon plan, we pleaded once again that the situation was urgent and that the measures proposed fell far short of what was necessary.

Over the years I have learned not to be surprised at the brick-wall mentality about fishery matters displayed by politicians and civil servants. We presented a similar plan to the Irish government in September 1993 and continued to argue strongly that this was the way forward. Some 14 years years later, after a further three million salmon had been killed by Irish drift-nets, a government committee decided that the NASF solution was the answer.

However, the politicians and civil servants couldn’t admit that the ideas had come from outside Ireland. So they presented our solution as a purely Irish initiative. Never mind, it’s the future of the Altantic salmon that matters and our adopted ideas seems to be meeting success.

Similarly, I think Norwegian civil servants are beginning to appreciate that something really bad has happened to their great natural resource. They are not too worried about the salmon but they hate the idea that moves to restore Norway’s desperately low salmon stocks are being shaped by foreigners in distant lands and that this will torpedo their efforts to present Norway as an environmental leader.

The tinkering with Norway’s commercial salmon-fishing rules will be seen universally as environmental hypocrisy. It puts Norway at the bottom of the list of nations that are facing up to the perils facing their wild Atlantic stocks.

Massive fish for which Norway is famous now lost

The new regulations go against all scientific advice and the Finnmark fishery is also a prime example of a mixed-stock fishery stealing the crops of other nations. These nets take a great many salmon returning to their native rivers in Russia and Finland, and some premium rivers on the Kola peninsula will continue to be severely hit. Nets in southern Norway have also been increasing their take of the few remaining Atlantic salmon that still go to Sweden.

Anglers in Norway must not just blame the nets. In terms of catch-and-release, Norway’s anglers are way behind most nations. Like many of my fellow Icelanders, Norwegian rods want to eat salmon even if that means reducing broodstock. Members of the governing party  tried to follow Germany’s mistaken policy and ban catch-and-release in Norway. They failed but there is a general refusal to admit the effectiveness of this management tool.

River fishery owners in Norway have been working hard to boost sport fishing and expected support from their government after four ministries said they would encourage angling tourism. Yet again, the politicians did virtually nothing. They are undermining the private sector investment and it is hard to understand why they cannot see that this sends the wrong signals to the rest of the world.

Erik Solheim, the minister of environment, put his political future on the line by expressing his commitment to the NASF salmon restoration campaign group and his concern at what the Finnmark nets were doing to Russia’s salmon. The Russian government has complained at the number of fish it is losing to Norway’s nets. Unfortunately, Solheim’s salmon staff have continued to show their incompetence in failing to face up to the dangers that are now hitting them hard.

I find it strange that Helga Pedersen, the minister of fisheries in Oslo, cannot see the vast opportunies that would open up for Finnmark’s rural community if most of the salmon that return to that area were allowed to reach their native rivers. She and her Sami rights colleagues are opposed to any reduction in netting and she overruled the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management (DN) when it tried to introduce stricter measures in the Finnmark/Sami region. I sincerely hope that this will not discourage Norwegian anglers from fishing in Finnmark since the area needs all the additional earnings it can get and I’d encourage all international anglers to continue to visit Norway.

A few years ago we were asked to advise foreign anglers to boycott Ireland because of the the drift-net damage. We refused because a boycott hurts the innocent. We recommended we should flock to Ireland, and many of us did. We should follow this course in Norway. Do go and practise catch-and-release and preach its values. Talk to all who will listen about our concern at Norway’s management regime. Try to get Norwegians and Germans to release their salmon. They need to understand this useful way of restoring stocks.

The Ministry of Environment has promised to review the measures for the 2009 season but the salmon-farming industry remains relatively unchecked and continues to destroy salmon rivers, and Gyrodactylus salaris recently emerged again on the famous Laerdal river and continues to be a threat.

Earlier this year, the NASF partnership called on Norway to adopt a concerted and effective national salmon policy to restore her salmon stocks. We must keep repeating this message. It is too late for many rivers but those that survive are in dire need of a leading figure with the courage to turn the government’s salmon policies completely around.

First published: Trout & Salmon magazine June 2008.