The responsible fisherman's spokesman

Knud Andersen trained as a craftsman, built ships on a shipyard in the Faroe Islands, before becoming a fishing skipper based in the small Danish fishing village of Bønnerup in Djursland. Fishing became more difficult and difficult, and after 25 years as skipper of a fishing boat, he now spends his time providing information through the Living Sea organization.

- The coastal fisherman is central to the work you do today. Why the coastal fisherman?

- Many years of experience from a life with fishermen has convinced me that today we need a debate about how society perceives those who manage the resources. I myself have been very frustrated with the work our own unions have done. I want the responsible fisherman to come to his right. Many people have a picture of the fisherman on the quayside as one with an open coverall, a snout in his mouth, a beard, a big rumen and the most expensive four-wheel drive parked right next door. People look at the fisherman as rich.

My goal is to show that this picture is wrong. The fisherman is in contact with nature and the people who are left on land.

- You have worked to get an eco-label on the fish. Why?

- We have wanted to bring out the responsible fisherman. We believe that it is important to create alliances between the fisherman who harvests the sea resources in a gentle way and the consumer who is responsible and conscious in his choice of food.

We thought this would be something the fishermen were interested in. And many fishermen support us, but we have experienced that hate campaigns have been launched and created enemy images of us. The Danish Fisheries Association excluded 31 larger and smaller boats, because they sympathized with us.

- Living Sea is by some compared to environmental organizations such as Greenpeace and WWF. Maybe it does not exactly create trust among fishermen?

- The comparison is incorrect. We are an organization that works for the fisherman to be able to harvest from the sea's resources, and we who are involved are largely fishermen or former fishermen. That is, we know the fisherman's situation on our own body.

But we want a better thought out policy. No one can claim anything other than the fact that conventional equipment such as line, yarn and cheat are less energy intensive than the giant trawler.

- There will be fewer and fewer Danish fishermen. A development that we know from other fishing nations. Who is responsible?

- What we can say with certainty is that it is not the coastal fisherman who has emptied the sea. It is not the little fisherman with his little shark that destroys the sea. We should rather focus on the brutal fishing with heavy gear that, among other things, the trawlers use. It is therefore a paradox that coastal fishermen should be punished for the greed of others.

- What is the role of the coastal fisherman?

- I have recently visited fishermen in Sri Lanka. In their casting system, the fisherman is at the bottom. Even though we do not have a casting system in the Nordic countries, we see that the coastal fisherman is the smallest in society everywhere.

The role of coastal fishermen is overlooked by the large community because they play a very important role in their communities which are often far from the big cities. The angler creates dynamism and life. And not least, the coastal fisherman is important for a nation's identity. When we then experience that the angler's opportunities to go to sea, then society loses part of its character. When the inshore is gone, the last obstacle is getting people moving from the coastal communities. Without the angler no coastal community.

Being a coastal fisherman is not about fish, it is about people – it is a lifestyle.

- The coastal fishermen claim that their position is threatened. How do you explain that?

- There is a tough battle going on for the resources. The coastal fisherman is lowest on the ladder. It is those with financial muscles who take care of themselves and supply themselves with the resources. They do this either by plundering fish through illegal fishing, or they use their financial strength to secure access to fishery resources through powerful lobbying in the corridors of power, where there are no representatives of the coastal population.

- How will the coastal fishermen and the coastal population solve the tough challenges they face?

- This is a question of morality and attitude to life. Because this is related to how you as a human being otherwise approach the challenges in society. Do you want the resources to be concentrated in a few hands, or do you want activities in the districts. Do you want to think about those who come after us, or is it better to empty the sea of ​​some kind of fish before we find another fish that we can compete to eradicate?

We who live in the Nordic countries like to call our society a democracy. But I wonder where do we hear the angler's voice? If we look at the organization within the fisheries organizations it is quite clear that if you have a small boat, then you have a small voice, but if you have a large boat then you have a large and loud voice. The same can be said for those who have small debts have a small voice, while those who have large debts have a large and violent voice.

The challenges facing coastal fishermen in all societies around the world are that they are not heard in the corridors of power. Their voice goes away, and only when power wakes up can something happen.

- How do you think that today's fishing resources are managed?

- What governs us is the market, power and science. Power is left to the market – our greatest idol. Market organizations govern together with the almighty government or the European Commission. Here we have the officials as princes in the complexity of the issue. The scientific institutions depend on the commissioned work of the market leaders and the grace of the government.

For the angler, this game becomes unworthy. They have no place in this game and can only hope that the people's representatives, ie the politicians, do something about it.

- In the current situation with too much capacity, there are some who have to go out, also among the coastal fishermen, right?

- In Denmark and the EU, we currently have no priorities. Among other things, the EU chooses to transfer some of the overcapacity to poor countries' fishing zones, and some fishing boats are taken out and turned into nails or stick wood.

This is completely meaningless because there is no assessment of the types of gear and boat types that can carry on a sustainable fishing. No effort is made to get rid of the most environmentally damaging boat types. At the same time, public subsidies for new construction of new and more efficient fishing boats are purchased, regardless of what kind of environmental profile the boats have.

I believe that the government should realize that it is the coastal fleet that must be taken care of, while the large energy-efficient, capital-heavy and brutal trawlers should be taken out of the fishery. But the politicians are cowardly. They refer to the market and the forces of the market. They are so cowardly that they ask the fishermen about who is going to survive, rather than make a choice and stand for it.