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

After 1820, a third phase of real economic growth began, related to
the introduction of the pound net for a new fishery in the West Baltic for
cod and plaice and the establishment of sailing fish merchants who
brought live fish directly from the fisherman to the new urban
middle-class which developed a taste for fresh fish and were willing to
pay for good quality.
By 1870, the national fish market came into existence. All that was
left was to utilise the new railway system which brought good
communications even to the west coast of Jutland within the next decade.
When the railway system linked up with the new fish auction established
in Hamburg in 1887, the framework for the Danish fish trade had been
established. The west coast fisherman soon invested in sea-going seiners
which became the hallmark of late-nineteenth and twentieth-century
Danish fishing. By 1950, Danish seiners dominated the North Sea, and
skipper ownership stood out in contrast to the highly-centralised British
ownership structure.
In the past fifty years, Danish fisheries have experienced the full force
of a global fish market. In the process, thousands of jobs have been lost,
skipper ownership, while still significant, is much reduced compared to
company ownership, and many fishing communities have turned their
backs to the sea as industrial jobs on land have attracted young men who
would traditionally have gone to sea.
Selected Sources and Literature
Statistics for catch and manpower in the Danish fisheries are available in
the annual Fiskeri-Beretning (Copenhagen, 1889-1977). The statistics
have not been published since 1978, but comprehensive data on a wide
range of parameters are available upon requests from the Danish
Ministry for Agriculture and Fisheries. V. Falbe-Hansen and W.
Scharling, Danmarks Statistik I (Copenhagen, 1885) 358-71 summarize
the data collected by various commissions in the 1870s and 1880s. A. J.
Smidth, At vove for at vinde (Grenaa, 1987) is an edition of the first
fisheries consultant’s extensive travel notes 1859-63. There is a wealth
of archival material in the deposits of the various committees on fishery
affairs in the State Department of Finance from the early eighteenth
century onwards. This material is as yet unsorted, but will soon become
available in an online electronic catalogue, which should be of great
potential use to all areas within the Dano-Norwegian Realm. Maibritt
Bager’s ongoing study and proposed edition of the reports to secretary of
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