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Sande 2007, p. 19-30 og 42-46.
34. Henrik B. Simonsen: Fiskeriet i klemme i: Sjæk’len. År-
bog for Fiskeri- og Søfartsmuseet/Saltvandsakvariet i Es-
bjerg 1993. Esbjerg 1994, p. 48.
35. Byskov: Viljen til fiskeri…, p. 42.
36. Snurrevodsfiskeri i Danmark, Rapport fra Danmarks Fi-
skeriforening, oktober 2001, p. 11.
37. Interview med Bent Trillingsgaard.
38. Byskov: Viljen til fiskeri…, p. 50-55.
39. Oplysningerne om flertrawlfiskeriets påvirkning af hav-
bunden stammer fra interviewet med Peder Rønn.
40. Interview med Peder Rønn.
41. ”En fiskerihavn er truet på livet”, Kristeligt Dagblad, 20.
juli 2004.
42. I januar 2010 var der udover RI 475 Jean Paul i Lemvig
fortsat en håndfuld snurrefartøjer tilbage i Thyborøn og et
enkelt i Esbjerg.
Summary
On the basis of interviews, the literature and written sour-
ces, the article discusses Lemvig’s development as a fish-
ery harbour from the first half of the twentieth century until
landings ceased in 2008.
Lemvig is a market town in the western part of the Liim
Fjord, two hours’ sailing from Thyborøn channel at the
North Sea. Throughout the twentieth century, the town’s
fishing harbour was home to a sea-going fishing fleet which
consisted predominantly of Danish seine vessels. The har-
bour’s growth in the early 1900s was attributed to local
fishermen’s successful line fishing for haddock and cod with
sea-going decked boats, but many Lemvig fishermen con-
verted to Danish seines as early as 1915. When Thyborøn
harbour opened for landings of fish in 1917, the Lemvig
fishermen began to use this harbour as their base, and con-
tinued to do so until an ice works and a fish auction were re-
established in Lemvig in 1946/47. Lemvig then functioned
as base harbour for a number of Danish seine vessels which
gradually grew to over 50, and which fished primarily for
plaice and cod over most of the North Sea. In the 1950s
and 60s the town was also a popular base harbour for small
trawlers and Danish seine vessels from harbours along the
Kattegat when they fished in the North Sea in summer.
In contrast to Thyborøn, Lemvig was known for a lively
restaurant life, and the locals were happy that Lemvig’s at-
tractive location at the fjord together with its public house
life was able to attract dockings and turnover for the town
and for the fish auction in the post-war years.
The town’s home fleet gradually grew, among other
reasons thanks to various new constructions from the well-
reputed local shipyard, and the fishing boat fleet and their
landings peaked in the 1970s and 80s. In the 1970s, Lemvig
was the base for the expansion of the Danish seine roller
– a local engine maker developed this aid, which gave the
Danish seine fishery throughout Denmark and Great Britain
a major leap forward in development. In the mid-1980s the
harbour was home to 57 seagoing vessels, but development
turned around in the 1990s, and Lemvig’s fishing boat fleet
was hit hard by the general crisis in fishing. The introduc-
tion of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in the Euro-
pean Community in 1984 was the beginning of the regula-
tion of North Sea fishing under rules which did not suit the
Danish seine fishery. Falling fish populations led to cutbacks
in the cod and other quotas, and their implementation took
the form of rationed fishing and quantities which meant
inappropriate stops during the Danish seine fishermen’s
seasons, mainly in the summer half-year. Several years’ at-
tempts to adapt to the conditions were followed in 1993 by
dramatic falls in the price of fish and a problematic period
with landings of illegal catches, and increasing problems
of profitability led to major problems among many fisher-
men. The result was that by 1997, most of the Lemvig fleet
ceased operation with support for scrapping the boats, and
only a dozen vessels remained. But these continued fishing
into the twenty-first century with the older wooden cutters
until the end of 2008, when the last Danish seine boat with
an L (Lemvig) harbour number was sold. The last ten years
of fishing from Lemvig were further marked by limits on
the number of days at sea, individual quota schemes and
competition at the fishing sites from modern trawlers from
other west coast harbours.