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For hundreds of years the bluefin tuna had been a regular visitor in Norwegian waters. After spawning in the Mediterranean Ocean the shoals of tuna entered the Atlantic Ocean setting the course northwards. Some shoals then entered the Bay of Biscay, while others moved on further north. After passing Great Britain the shoals went northeast, between Faroe Islands and Shetland towards the coast of Norway.

The large tuna was hard to catch. In some areas hand harpoon was used to catch tunas. The photo above shows a tuna caught with harpoon in 1920. During the 1920’s the first efforts were made to catch tuna using purse seine. Two businessmen financed the experiment hoping it would result in a new industry in Norway. They had learn a lot by observing the tuna fishery in Italy.

A large and solid seine were made. Some of the most experienced fishermen were then contacted. Edvard Ellingsvåg and Jon Slatlem became in charge of the crew. They were too late for the tuna season in 1925, but the year after, at the end of July, they succeeded in trapping 24 bluefin tuna.

The first 24 fish had a total weight of 4,5 tons. The catch was brought to Trondheim, and below you can see a proud fisherman – Edvard Ellingsvåg – with the catch in Trondheim.

This was not a start of a new fishery. The special and solid tuna seine was very expensive, heavy and hard to work with. In spite of its proportions it was not strong enough to hold all the trapped tuna. The big and strong tuna often succeeded in swimming right through the seine, resulting in days of work repairing the seine and further expenses for the fishermen. Therefore only a few tuna seines were in use. In addition some tuna were caught using harpoon gun. A breakthrough for the tuna seine in Norway came later; in 1948.