The film below was made west of Karmøy in March 2013. One fisherman had set the net at daytime, for only 20 minutes. Enjoy.

Below you can see some pictures of cod caugth in such fish traps this winter. It is a cold hobby, and the traps can stay in the sea for 4-7 days before you empty them. By using 4 fish traps there is at least one nice cod to bring home.

The basking shark was not used for food but this large shark had a lot of valuable liver. The oil extracted from the liver was highly priced as it was used in high-temperature-engines. In the 1970′s the fishermen also cut off the fins which was sold to Asia and used in shark-fin soup.

This fishery (or hunt) has now been banned for a couple of decades. The price of the liver (and oil) has dropped due to synthetic alternatives.

During the 1980′s it was clear that the basking shark was not as numerous as in the past. Overfishing, a drop in prices and the moral aspect about this catch led to a stop in this hunt. In Norwegian waters it is not allowed to hunt for basking shark, Greenland shark or porbeagle.

It is easy to judge what former generations did for a living and the hunt for basking shark may look cruel to most of those who see the film. Still the hunt for basking shark was one of many fisheries and the film shows a piece of cultural history. Here is another film from this fishery.

The first curled octopus (above) was taken in a pot while fishing for Norwegian lobster in 2012. Photo: Bjørnar Akselvoll. The color of the octopus is usually shades of red, brown or orange but the octopus has the ability to change its color-pattern.

The octopus above was caught in 2003 and I do not recall the story about this catch. Photo: R. Gjerde. The curled octopus seen below was taken as a by-catch while fishing with net in a fjord (Hardangerfjorden) two years ago. Photo: Kåre Grønsnes.

Taking pictures of the catch is in this case done because the curled octopus is a rare sight along the Norwegian coastline. The curled octopus on this page were released after the photo-session. As this octopus is rare in Norway, we have no tradition of eating them.

Although it’s smaller it is not too small to eat. I got the crab from a fisherman who had caught one in his net while fishing for herring. He had so much work with all the herring that he didn’t care about the crab. I got the crab and I thought “It looks like a king crab.. maybe it taste like a king crab?”

The large king crab is found further north in Norway, but why not try a northern stone crab? I boiled it for 12 minutes in salted water and then set it outside. When the crab was cold, I served it with white bread and mayonnaise. I have tasted king crab, but the northern stone crab tasted even better. Only the legs and claws are eatable.

The norther stone crab is also fond in parts of UK and don’t throw it away if you get one in your pot or fishing net – it tastes fantastic! Below you can see a picture of the northern stone crab while it still was alive.

The sea tadpole (Careproctus reinhardti) is rarely more than 30 cm. long and it has no color. You can see straight through the fish as the blood and the veins give the fish a touch of red or pink. This fish is found in deep waters in the northern part of The Atlantic ocean.

Thanks to Øyvind Tangen who has taken the pictures.

The pictures on this page show a small-spotted catshark caught in the southern part of Norway (near Egersund). The fisherman (Øivind Mong) was a bit surprised when he found eggs in the shark. Several egg-cases were found and each egg has “strings” attached to each corner (see picture below). These strings help the egg-casees to “hold on” to something on the bottom. It takes 5-11 months for the embryos to develop.

Thanks to Øivind Mong for the pictures.

As seen on the picture below this fish is more than 50 cm. long. The official length was set to 51 cm. although we can see that the fish tail is close to 52 cm.

The pictures of the big long rough dab are taken by Øyvind Tangen.