Anne has been fishing for wild salmon with her father since she was a child.
She is facing an insecure future in an endangered profession, but firmly believes the sea salmon fishers are not to blame for a fish stock in decline.
For generations, Anne’s family has been living in the tiny community Per Larsavik, living of fishing and small scale agriculture. She has learned about the wild salmon fishing by following her father to sea.
Anne Kristiansen is from the tiny community Per Larsavik in the county of Nesseby, Norway. She is a salmon fisher, but now lives in Ås in the south of Norway, where she studies agriculture.
Anne would prefer to remain at her home place, but feels she also needs formal education to secure her future. She is therefore a student of agriculture in the south of Norway, but comes home every summer to fish with her father. The income of the wild salmon fishing is now a dear income for her as a student, but she believes it will be hard to make a living out of it, as it is marginalised year by year.
Anne has strong opinions about the regulations that the Norwegian government is putting on this traditional way of fishing. She says regulations give to much advantage to the sport fishers of the rivers. For her, salmon fishing is not a hobby or a mere interest. It is a way of income, and a source for retaining a traditional way of life.
She hopes to be able to live according to this tradition, at the place where she belongs. Another worry of Anne, is the growth of salmon fish farming in the fjord Varangerfjorden and elsewhere. This is by many interests sees as a thereat to the North Atlantic Salmon.
The wild Atlantic salmon is in decrease, and so are the traditional performers of this profession. The fishing for wild Atlantic salmon is regulated for preservation, but the traditional fishers find that too much precedence is given to sport fishers.
By others, including organisations such as WWF, this traditional fishing is seen as a too big strain on the salmon population. Some organisations claim the fishing should be stopped- in return for a compensation to the wild salmon fishers.
Russian regional authorities in Murmansk have claimed that the local sea fishing for wild salmon in Finnmark is a threat to the tourism industry on the Kola peninsula.
This story was first published in 2013.
