Paper short abstract:

Today fishing communities are under a hard pressure caused by the overcapacity of trawlers and the political introduction of privatization and individualization of the catch rights. This study discuss if post industrial fisheries and communities can have a future in the cultural context of Europe.

Paper long abstract:

The fishing community of Thorupstrand in Northern Jutland has attracted considerable attention in European fisheries management since the fishers in this community have a highly developed artisanal – or post industrial - fishery.

To avoid the negative consequences of the privatization of catch quotas in 2006 these fishers formed a common quota company including the crew fishers, and the company invested in sufficient quotas in a common pool to ensure the future fishing rights of the community – and to keep out outside investors trying to take over the quotas. In the neighbouring community Lildstrand a similar attempt was unsuccessful and the local fleet was sold in less than a month in the spring of 2007. Today the town is taken over by tourism.

This example shows that on the basis of the share system and its culture, it is possible to build a common pool of quota rights attached to a single community and ensuring the community a share in the resource and provide fishers an interest in conserving this resource for future generations – legally as well as biologically.

But this experiment also reveals that the rapid rise in quota prices weighed down the community company with a vast debt, making it vulnerable to external factors. The financial crisis (leading to bankruptcy for one of the local banks) and a generally low price of fish in Europe have forced the company into a battle of survival, threatening the company with collapse and destroying the fishing activities in the community.