By the end of 2013, only 9521 people in Norway were registered as having fishing as their main occupation. This is three percent less than the previous year.
In 1990, there were 20,475 fishermen in Norway, numbers from the Directorate of Fisheries show.
At the same time, the average age of fishers has increased from 39.3 in 1990 to 45.8 years in 2013. The share of fishers aged 60 years or more have gone up from 12% in 1990 to 21% in 2013. The share of fishermen aged 30 or less has correspondingly gone down from 33% in 1990 to 17% in 2013.
Fisheries have always been a central component of Norwegian business and industry because Norway controls some of the richest fishing grounds in the world. The North Sea, Norwegian coast, Barents Sea and the Polar Front in the Norwegian Sea are all highly productive areas, and major fish resources spawn just off the coast of Norway.
The fisheries sector represent one of Norway’s most important export industries. Norwegian export of seafood in 2013 beat all previous records. The value of the exports, including both wild catch and aquaculture, amounted to 61 billion NOK (€7.3 billion), as BarentsObserver reported.
