The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976 - University of Hull

maximum, between 30,000 and 40,000 fishermen were taking part in this
fishery.
Organizational Efforts, State Intervention and Technological
Modernization in the Fishing Industry, 1900-1970
Compared to other groups of workers, fishermen had difficulties in
organizing themselves in trade unions. 291 This was mainly due to
specific features in the occupation itself. The fishermen’s way of life
varied a lot along the coast and between different types of fisheries. Their
diversified problems asked for many kinds of solutions. It was not easy
to define a framework of common interests which most Norwegian
fishermen could agree upon. While the industrial workers and the
farmers formed their organizations in the late nineteenth century, the
fishermen had to wait about 30 years before they could complete the
same process. The union was not realized until 1926 when The
Norwegian Association of Fishermen—Norges Fiskarlag—was founded
at a meeting in the town of Bodø.
The Norwegian state was involved in the process leading to the
establishment in Bodø, supporting it with money and in other ways. The
fishermen were not strong enough as a group to manage the task
themselves. Similar kinds of government support were activated when
the herring fishermen of Western Norway formed the first sales
organizations only a few years later (Storsildlaget 1927, Stor- og
Vårsildlaget 1928). 292
But this initial help soon proved insufficient. If a sales organization
was to run effectively, it was necessary for all fishermen to support it.
Outsiders threatened the whole idea of selling in common. The
fishermen's organizations therefore asked the central authorities for a
more effective weapon to compel outsiders to sell their fish under terms
decided by the co-operative. The government listened to the claim and
the first law of regulation came in 1930, confined to the herring sector. It
was followed by the common Raw Fish Act in 1938 and the
establishment of the Raw Fish Association—Norges Råfisklag—in the
cod fisheries of Northern Norway in the same year.
What was the reason for this state intervention in the Norwegian
fishing industry in the interwar period? Mainly it represented a kind of
291 Hallenstvedt & Dynna 1976 and Hallenstvedt 1982.
292 Fasting 1960. Naastad 1982. Christensen & Hallenstvedt 1990.
160