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A report by the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries shows more young men and female fishers entering the fishing industry
A report released by the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries has shown that the number of young men and female fishers entering the fishing industry for the first time is increasing.
The report found that there was an increase of 60 full-time fishermen last year with over half of these being women. The number of young year-round fishermen has also increased every year since 2014.
While in 2014, 1,613 under the age of 30 were registered as full-time fishermen, there were 2,021 in 2020, an increase of 25 per cent since 2014.
The number of year-round fishermen has decreased over time, but the proportion under the age of 30 is at the same level in 2020 as 20 years ago, i.e. 21.3 percent.
The proportion under the age of 30 is highest along the coast from Rogaland to Trøndelag. In Møre og Romsdal, 28 percent of the registered year-round fishermen are under 30 years of age. Not many fishermen living in Oslo have been registered, but almost 26 percent of them (15 out of 58) are under 30 years of age.
“This indicates that the fishing fleet is an attractive workplace for young people,” says acting director at the statistics department Anita Kjeilen Steinseide.
Still low proportion of female fishermen
The proportion of women among registered year-round fishermen is still low. Of a total of 9,491 fishermen, 360 are women. But more than half of the new year-round fishermen in the last year are women. Of the 60 new full-time fishermen in 2020, 31 were women.
The proportion of female fishermen under the age of 30 was 28 per cent in 2020, which means that there are relatively more young people among female fishermen than among their male colleagues.
“There is still a very skewed gender balance among Norwegian fishermen. The development in 2020 is positive, but it is too early to say whether this is a trend that will continue,” says Steinseide.
Fewer fishing vessels
Final figures for fishing vessels for 2020 are also available. Here, the statistics show a reduction in the number of vessels of 143 from 2019 to 2020, i.e. from 5,982 to 5,839. There was a decrease in most size groups, but the decrease is greatest for vessels smaller than 11 meters (from 4,837 vessels in 2019 to 4,705 in 2020).
