In municipal planning of marine areas, fisheries activity must be taken into account. This is often described based on known map information about spawning grounds and the currently documented movement of fishing vessels. However, little consideration is given to the historical development of fisheries. Such information is crucial to understanding the potential ecological significance of a marine area. Many fjord systems in Norway have experienced changes in local fish stocks, but these changes are rarely documented.

In this pilot project, the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development commissioned SALT to develop a method for extracting historical catch data that can provide insight into the development of local fish stocks over time. We have digitized large datasets that were previously only available in book format, making it possible to study the development of Norwegian fisheries as far back as 1914.

Norwegian fisheries have never before been documented in such a long time series. Data up to 1976 were manually transcribed from scanned PDF editions of “Norges fiskerier” published by Statistics Norway (SSB). From 1977 to 2024, we have gained access to digitalized data from the Directorate of Fisheries.

The dataset consists of landing statistics for all species in Norway, providing unique insights into historical developments. The data show changes from the municipal to the national level, allowing trends in landings to be linked with historical events.

The dataset now includes 700,000 rows, where each row represents the number of tons of a given species landed in a given location in a given year.

Over time, these series could become a valuable tool in decision-making processes and will undoubtedly reveal a wealth of new insights.