A fish blog.com

The halibut in Norway suffers from previous decades of over fishing. The situation is fortunately improving but strict regulation is still necessary if the stoch should be able to grow to former hights.

Torstein Halstensen has spent years tagging halibut from serveral areas in the souther part of Norway. He spend most of his spare time in a boat, fishing for halibut. By tagging, releasing and recapturing the fish he has added new knowledge about the migration pattern and behavior of halibut from different areas. Some fish are recaptured at the exact same position as it was tagged.

In an email Torstein tells about the finding of a spawning ground in a fjord. Torstein has interviewed a lot of old fishermen and searced through a lot of old documents in his search for traditional spawning grounds. One that has been forgotten for decades was recently re found by Torstein.

He does not share information about the locations of all the spawning grounds he has found. His work is done in order learn more about how we can protect the halibut – not as a guide for fishermen who want to fish as much halibut as possible.

The pictures in this post shows Torstein fishing halibut in a Norwegian fjord. All the halibut are being tagged and then released.

While the small ones can be lifted on board, the biggest must enter the boat from the stern.

Torstein has long experience in getting the halibut off the hook without causing damages to its mouth. Last year he caught the biggest male halibut ever in Norwegian waters. The last picture shows a halibut that is recaptured and then tagged by Torstein for the second time. Photos: Audun Skjølberg

Today I got up early. I had an important appointment with two fishermen in the harbour. Yesterday they had set their herring nets on the old fishing ground west of our island, and they knew that the Norwegian spring-spawning herring had entered the coastline.

As the nets were hauled, we had hopes for the result although you never know anything for sure when it comes to the herring. The nets rose towards the surface and the first herring was glimmering in the sea. There were so much herring that the fishermen decided to haul the nets from the stern of the boat.

After an hour on the fishing ground we returned to the harbour. Some people were already waiting for fishing boats to come in with the catch. Buying herring in the harbour is an important tradition and the former importance of the herring fishery is not forgotten. The few fishermen that still participate in this fishery believe that the herring will stay on the fishing grounds for at least a week or two. I got my chance today – and it was a great experience.

I was in the harbour when I head the sound of a boat coming in. It was Helge Selliken who had been out checking his fishing gear. With his four fish traps and three pots in the sea he usually got a lot of crabs and sometimes a cod – or two. Last fall he hoped to get a lobster, but without any results.

Today he met me with a big smile. I had to ask him; Did you get a lobster? He could not hide his smile and he nodded. Finally a lobster had visited one of his pots. In Norway it is only allowed to fish lobster in October, and with a lot of bad weather the season is short.

It was a nice lobster. Helge estimated it to be around 2 kilograms. Before he (and the lobster) left, he let me take some pictures of the catch.

I will like to post two pictures of small Croatian fishing boats. Croatia has a fishing fleet consisting of large trawlers and purse seiners, but on this post you will see smaller boats used by the locals for traditional fishing, nowadays more in terms of recreational fishing.

The picture above is taken in Seget Vranjica not far from Trogir. I will visit Trogir later this summer and hopefully I will learn more about the use of these boats and the traditional fishing gear.

The next picture shows a boat in Tucepi (a bit further southeast on the Croatian coastline). A lot of similar boats was seen in Tucepi and in the evening they left the harbour. The boats is then easily seen not far from the coast as the fishermen use lights to attract the prey. This way of fishing squids can be observed from late summer till late fall.